Grant: Summer Program in Aging

Older people, especially those relying on ongoing care and social services for support, find current care services inadequate, confusing, and discriminatory, which can make them feel neglected and socially excluded. People living in rural and semi-rural communities, such as the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, face additional challenges to accessing care as the population there is aging faster, there is a larger shortage of healthcare practitioners, and many of the available care services rely heavily on volunteers. This project aims to: 1.To create a plan of care services that meets the needs of older people regardless of their gender, their income or the kinds of health challenges they are living with 2.To include in the project older people with different backgrounds, strengths and abilities 3.To have conversations about creating a meaningful change in how we can improve the health services for older people In this project, we will explore the strengths of the Sunshine Coast community. We will meet every second week for five months in a community setting. The initial group will decide who needs to be included in this conversation. In this project, older people, including people living with dementia will be invited and supported to share their opinions and to engage with others in their community in conversations about the strengths of their communities and health care services. Through this project, we will also learn how older people, including frail older people, would like to be supported while they are participating in and leading research and community conversations. This project is important because older people are often seen by others as unimportant and less capable, and their opinions and ideas are often ignored. It's important that we ask older people, especially those living with dementia, what they like and don't like about how they are being cared for in their communities and what kind of change they would like to see in the future.