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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.

Program  |  Speaker Bios  |  Poster Abstracts 

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.