About Us

Who we are

We are a group of passionate professionals working together to transform the experience of dementia.

• Registered Nurses

• Personal support workers

• Recreation therapists

• Music therapists

• Art therapists

• Culinary professionals

• Housekeepers

• Stylists

• Students

• Administrators

We collaborate closely with a roster of partners to maintain seamless, high quality care.

• Occupational therapists

• Physical therapists

• Speech language pathologists

• Chiropodists

• Dentists

• Registered dietitians

Though we are a completely integrated, interdisciplinary team, we are a nurse-led organization. From our CEO right down to our individual practice leads, we employ highly-skilled nurses. They are recruited for their deep medical knowledge, outstanding clinical expertise, and compassionate nature. Once here, they receive intensive training in our philosophy and model of care. We prioritize and invest in nurses because we believe their skills are uniquely suited to the care of elders with changing cognitive abilities. 

Truly gifted nurses know how to read vital signs—physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual. They know a hug can be immensely therapeutic. They know when it is time to order a cup of tea instead of a dose of medication. They also know when it is time to escalate things—to revise diagnoses, redirect other members of the care team, or raise flags with the attending physician.

Our skilled nurse leaders set our tone. They help us to keep our balance as an organization that supports the whole person, the whole family, throughout the whole experience.

Why we exist

We are a place to live and grow when wellbeing can no longer be realized at home. We exist to help elders and their families find new meaning in their relationships and experience life in all its fullness as cognitive abilities change.

Where we come from

Sagecare was founded by Roslyn Schulz, MSW.

Early in her career, Roz lived and worked as a social worker in a small, home-like facility in upstate New York designed for young people experiencing mental health issues.

She witnessed first-hand the power of a humane, human-scale therapeutic living environment and the remarkable impact that community and social engagement can have on wellbeing. The experience made a deep impression on her. When she returned to Canada she was determined to bring this same approach to another highly complex and underserved population: seniors living with dementia.

Roz and her husband, Ben—an architect—set out to design a company, a community, and a home that would fundamentally transform the experience of dementia. They partnered with Judith Shamian, a long-time collaborator who had served as Chief Nursing Policy Advisor to the Government of Canada, President of the International Council of Nurses, and CEO of the Victorian Order of Nurses. Judith brought to the team a deep understanding of the medical complexity of dementia. She was instrumental in designing the RN-led model of care that has become the organization’s hallmark.  

The trio called their project Sagecare. This was an acknowledgment of the wisdom and experience of those they hoped to serve as well as an expression of their own cultural heritage. In the Jewish tradition, prophets study the future to reveal opportunities for goodness and virtue that we may encounter in our life's journey, while sages look into the past and show us how we have made way for love and healing in the paths we have followed. It is said that the prophet guides us in the search for purpose and significance in the open-ended future, while the sage helps us find value in our already closed past. One fortifies us with the gift of hope; the other, with the gift of meaning.

From the beginning, Sagecare looked beyond the medical and behavioural symptoms of dementia to address the unmet needs of the whole person—the whole family—searching for meaning in a rapidly shifting reality. Their approach was firmly rooted in the fundamental social work values of self-esteem, self-determination, flexibility, independence, integrity, dignity, egalitarian ideals and sensitivity to the individualized needs and wants of the person. The home they built was based on the careful study of other home-like settings, long-term care facilities, dementia and nursing models of care, environmental design best practices, and philosophical approaches to degenerative disease. Their approach was methodical, scientific, and decidedly person-centred. 

That was 147 Elder Street. That was twenty years ago.

Since then, Sagecare has become known around the world as a centre of excellence in dementia care. The team regularly hosts visiting students, participates in research projects, and advances its vision through close partnerships with organizations like the Alzheimer Society.