The scale of the underlying problem gives this work urgency. As global populations age, the number of people living with dementia continues to climb, and the complexities of the condition demand care systems that can genuinely meet the needs of both those diagnosed and their care partners. Policy provides the foundation for that care, yet national approaches vary enormously, shaped by regulatory environments and unique sociocultural contexts. The editors argue that this variation is not merely a complication but an opportunity: it creates a natural laboratory of innovative programs, networks and policies that make non-clinical services accessible, and sharing these innovations widely is essential to improving access everywhere. Five thematic areas emerged from the submissions: access for underserved populations, nature-based supports, creative pursuits, specific policies, and technological innovations for care and support.

Equity stands out as the collection’s most sobering thread. Barriers to dementia prevention, diagnosis, care and support are amplified for populations facing social disadvantage, cultural exclusion, geographic isolation, low income or migration, and these inequities are associated with worse brain health. The articles respond with models built from the ground up. Bell and colleagues describe a Multimodal Intergenerational Social Contact Intervention, a community-embedded program targeting dementia risk factors of loneliness and depressed mood through culturally meaningful intergenerational engagement. Nair and colleagues propose a Community Health and Wellbeing Worker-led model that strengthens existing neighborhood-based roles to deliver proactive, culturally responsive dementia support across the care continuum, offering a scalable route to earlier identification and better continuity for underserved communities.

The inequities documented are stark and global. In an original research article from Peru, Custodio and Dorell explore how family care partners experience and manage the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, revealing the emotional toll of caregiving and the need for culturally responsive supports in Latin America. In Canada, Fischer and colleagues found that a web-based educational program on dementia risk factors was culturally inappropriate for Métis communities in Alberta, concluding that in-person engagement is crucial to co-develop resources reflecting Indigenous knowledge and worldviews. A review led by Aguzzoli and colleagues, focused largely on Europe and the United States, highlights persistent inequalities among ethnic minority groups, including reduced access to primary care and lower treatment adherence compared with majority counterparts. Meanwhile, Solis and colleagues describe a decade of experience at a public memory clinic in Argentina serving a predominantly low-income region, showing how specialized dementia care can be adapted to an underserved population, and DeDecker and colleagues report an Ontario program embedding structured cognitive and functional assessments within community organizations, sharing results with primary care providers and linking standardized data to a provincial registry that informs policy in real time.

One of the most unexpectedly vibrant themes is the role of nature. Nature-based programs for people living with dementia and their care partners have been shown to improve mental health, physical activity, cognitive stimulation and social connection, yet cost, limited awareness, mobility challenges, environmental design and dementia-related stigma keep many from accessing them. Thompson and colleagues present a mini review of nature-based living labs, extending their application from indoor settings and aged care systems to direct engagement with the natural world. In Northern Italy, Dalla Costa and colleagues describe how farms can become places where people with dementia are empowered as active participants in meaningful shared work rather than passive recipients of care, a low-cost intervention that capitalizes on existing agricultural resources and volunteer frameworks and can be adapted to other community contexts. A review by Gill and colleagues in the United Kingdom maps evidence that both indoor and outdoor nature-based interventions can benefit psychological health, wellbeing and social engagement for people with dementia and those who care for them.

Creative pursuits emerge as another powerful, evidence-backed frontier, aligned with the World Health Organization’s growing arts and health movement. The logic is neurologically compelling: dementia shifts abilities unevenly, so while some cognitive domains decline, others remain intact, and creative practices in music, visual arts, storytelling and performance can support identity, evoke emotional expression and strengthen relationships in ways biomedical approaches alone cannot. Delacourt and colleagues describe a Canadian assisted living setting where co-viewing emotionally positive videos with people with advanced dementia elicits rich emotional communication through vocalizations, gaze and facial expressions, fostering social connection and joy. Huang and colleagues systematically review the use of headphones in music programs within long-term care, identifying enablers and barriers to personalized music therapy. An international group including people with lived experience, led by Liougas and colleagues, describes Walking the Talk for Dementia, a global immersive multi-day event that shifts the narrative from deficit-focused models toward creativity, resilience and shared humanity. In a striking fusion of art and neuroscience, O’Kelly and colleagues describe an initiative that transforms segments of a person’s EEG brain activity into colored spectrograms rendered as stained glass installed in their own home.

Policy itself receives direct scrutiny, with the editors noting that existing programs are often inadequate in scope and scale to create equitable care systems. Roberts and colleagues report on the adaptation of the Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care ECHO Program, finding that increased recognition of dementia risk reduction strategies among public health professionals can lead to more proactive measures integrated into local and regional strategies. Nakakawa and colleagues illuminate how dementia policy translates into everyday homecare practice in Sweden, showing that person-centered care requires more than formal policy commitments; their participatory, design-driven methods create spaces for collective sensemaking across system levels, bridging the gap between policy ideals and municipal realities. In the United States, Carder and colleagues found that states with memory-care-specific assisted living regulations were far more likely to include detailed person-centered and family-involved care requirements, covering staff training, care planning, resident rights and social engagement. Snowball and colleagues, in Canada, argue that lived experience should be recognized as a form of expertise in shaping research, policy and advocacy, supported through sustained participation and accessible infrastructures.

Technology rounds out the collection with both promise and caution. Tsabary and colleagues report an INTERDEM study mapping 28 research initiatives involving digital technology use by people with dementia during the COVID-19 pandemic, yielding a consensus-based framework to guide the adoption and implementation of assistive technologies. A review by Szcześniak and colleagues shifts attention from technology availability to equitable implementation, calling for personalizable, usable, diversity-sensitive technologies that support social health, independence and meaningful engagement. Kafadar and colleagues examine online peer support for people affected by young-onset dementia, emphasizing equitable, age-appropriate, co-designed approaches for populations facing geographic, digital and stigma-related barriers. From Spain and the Netherlands, Vilor-Tejedor and colleagues acknowledge artificial intelligence’s potential to enhance care delivery and decision-making but insist its development and governance must be grounded in dignity, equity, privacy and human connection, ensuring that technology augments rather than replaces human care. Timmons and colleagues demonstrate that peer support embedded within an online education program reduced isolation and increased confidence among caregivers.

The overarching message from the editors is one of momentum and transferability. Innovation, they conclude, is essential to meet the growing global need associated with dementia, and individuals and organizations worldwide are already developing approaches that transcend traditional services, including national and regional policies that can travel across jurisdictions. From Ontario’s standardized assessment registries to Italian care farms, from EEG-derived stained glass to Sweden’s design-driven sensemaking workshops, the diversity of innovations documented here suggests the future of dementia care will be built as much in communities and parliaments as in clinics. For researchers, practitioners and policymakers alike, the collection invites a simple but demanding question: which of these ideas can be adapted, tested and scaled in their own systems, before the demographic wave makes the answers a matter of urgency rather than aspiration.

Subject of Research: Global innovations in dementia care policies, services, equity, nature-based programs, creative arts and assistive technology

Article Title: Editorial: Innovations in dementia policies and services

Article References: Dawson, W. D., Canty, A. J., Migeot, J., O'Philbin, L., & Gelmon, S. B. (2026). Editorial: Innovations in dementia policies and services. Frontiers in Dementia, 5, Article 2006454. https://doi.org/10.3389/frdem.2026.2006454

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/frdem.2026.2006454

Keywords: dementia, health policy, caregiving, health equity, nature-based interventions, creative arts therapy, assistive technology, artificial intelligence, memory clinics, Indigenous health, person-centered care, global brain health