Researchers focus on better lives for seniors
Experts to present their visions at event
There’s no getting around it — Canadian culture generally doesn’t value its seniors enough and it needs to change that, those who study aging say.
“This is a long-standing issue,” says Rachel Weldrick, a McMaster University PhD candidate in social gerontology. “Seniors have been an afterthought in Canada for a long time.” That appears to be changing. Weldrick is one of many researchers and other professionals in Hamilton studying and formulating plans for the aged with the aim of making life better for them.
They include those at the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging (MIRA), a recognized leader in aging research and location of the newly formed Labarge Centre for Mobility in Aging. Also included is the Hamilton Council on Aging as well as the city’s age governance committee.
And on Thursday night, an event at McMaster will feature eight experts presenting their vision of a more inclusive society for seniors.
Weldrick, 26, is interested in the subject because “as a young person, I’ve always been interested in health and equality issues, and I got to thinking, why do seniors always have a crap
time of it?”
“If I’m lucky, I’ll be older one day … and I really hope by the time I’m older I won’t be an afterthought … in (my) community,” she says.
For her dissertation, called Alone in a Crowd, Weldrick is studying what causes seniors to feel cut off from their community despite being surrounded by people.
Ageism — discrimination on the basis of age — certainly exists in Hamilton in many dimensions, says Margaret Denton, with the Hamilton Council on Aging.
But the city’s age-friendly governance committee (which includes her agency) is working its way through implementing 100 recom- mendations to make Hamil- ton an age-friendly place.
“The whole thing tries to combat ageism,” Denton says.
MIRA’s scientific director, Parminder Raina, says the situation for older Canadians is improving. But he agrees that “ageism is an issue in our society.”
The Labarge Centre for Mobility in Aging is funding research projects on aging. One aims to understand bone density at a nanoscale to see if it will lead to longer-lasting hip and knee implants. Another looks at whether smart technology for joints can predict risk for falling and other mobility-related issues.
Raina and MIRA are also involved in the