2024
Community Care and Supports for Older Adults: Inclusion, Innovation & Integration
Chairperson: Andrew Wister
The 31st John K. Friesen Conference entitled “Community Care and Supports for Older Adults: Inclusion, Innovation and Integration.” The conference aims to provide information enabling our society to address cutting-edge issues and new opportunities to enhance community care and support systems targeting a rapidly aging population. Some of the emerging themes include social prescribing, care and integration of community and health care systems, applications to age-friendly communities, and examination of facilitators and barriers to enhanced care, such as ageism, declining economic security, marginalization, and technological literacy and its age-related divides. Social prescribing builds on community and healthcare integration by focusing explicitly on the access and alignment of services to meet the assessed needs of individuals and communities. Highlights include keynote addresses; topical panel discussions, symposia, and poster displays presented by local, national, and international speakers representing community organizations, NGOs, government, and academic sectors.
Day 1 – May 23, 2024
Welcome and Introduction
Andrew Wister, Conference Chair and Director, SFU Gerontology Research Centre
Laurie Anderson, Executive Director Harbour Centre Campus
Keynote Address
Chair: Andrew Wister, Professor and Director, SFU Gerontology Research Centre
Rx Building Community: Approach for Aging in Place
Suzanne Dupuis-Blanchard, Université de Moncton
Symposium
Chair: Beverley Pitman, United Way British Columbia
Scaling Up Community-Based Social Prescribing for Older Adults in British Columbia
Beverley Pitman, United Way British Columbia
Prabhraj Sandhu, United Way British Columbia
Indira Riadi, United Way British Columbia
Angela Sealy, Parkgate Society Community Services
Symposium
Chair: Gloria Gutman, Professor Emerita, SFU Department of Gerontology
Community Support for Diverse and Marginalized Communities
Mei Lan Fang, Urban Studies and Gerontology Department, Simon Fraser University
Leah Deslauriers, L'Chaim Adult Day Centre
Pamela Martin, BC Centre for Palliative Care
Symposium
Chair: Gloria Gutman, Professor Emerita, SFU Department of Gerontology
Appropriate and Affordable Housing: A Key Component of Aging-in-Place
Alison Silgardo, Seniors Services Society of BC
William Azaroff, Brightside Homes
Lui Franciosi, Dania Home Society
Panel
Chair: Andrew Wister, Professor and Director, SFU Gerontology Research Centre
Practice Perspectives for Enhancing Community
Ellen Peterson, Langely Division of Family Practice
Catherine Kohm, George Derby Care Society
John Pickering, Simon Fraser University Gerontology Research Centre
Anthony Kupferschmidt, City of Vancouver
Presentation
Chair: Andrew Wister, Professor and Director, SFU Gerontology Research Centre
Addressing Lonliness Through Men's Sheds
Robert Goluch, Men's Sheds
Public Lecture
The Future of Ageing in British Columbia
Dan Levitt, Seniors' Advocate of B.C.