Founded in 1991 by Dr. Kenneth Rockwood, Geriatric Medicine Research (GMR) has pioneered an interdisciplinary approach to the study of aging, frailty and dementia that has allowed us to work with artists, philosophers, linguists, sociologists, applied mathematicians and data miners, just to name a few.

Innovative work being done by the GMR team here at Dalhousie University/Capital Health  includes tools and services to allow for a more responsive system of care for aging patients, as well as work into the effects of social vulnerability on health and mortality. We have also initiated a specialized clinic to help elderly patients understand the benefits and risks of treatments available to them.

Recent work has also begun to help better understand and provide for the needs of those who care for our expanding population of dementia patients, and we currently head up a cross-Canada network for knowledge translation in the field of dementia research.

GMR has a long history of research collaborations with groups as close as Ontario and as far flung as China.  We hope you will take a minute to look explore our site, the varied work we do, and the many groups who work with us.

Check out their blog here.

• a possible Alzheimer’s ”vaccine” (from @50plus)
• controlling your online image (from @swhitbo)
• learning about health care and ageing in Cuba (from @globalageing)
• multi-tasking and ageing (from @seniors4living)

and much more including videos and links to articles from around the world.

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Age-Friendly Communities Funding

The Department of Seniors invites applications from municipalities that:

• Assist communities with strategic planning that supports applying age-friendly thinking to improve the physical and social environment
• Assist communities to promote healthy, active ageing by creating or adapting structures and services to be accessible for people of all ages

All municipal units in Nova Scotia are eligible to apply for an Age-Friendly Communities Program grant. Successful applications will receive up to 50 per cent of their project cost, to a maximum of a $5,000 grant, where the municipality matches the fund’s contribution.

The closing date for submission of proposals is 4:30 pm on May 16, 2011.

Positive Aging Funding

The Department of Seniors invites applications from non-profit community organizations to create projects that advance the goals and actions outlined in Nova Scotia’s Strategy for Positive Aging, with a focus on health, well-being and community participation.

• grants of up to $10,000 are available
• projects must involve seniors in the planning and delivery of the project

The closing date for submission of proposals is 4:30 pm on April 21st, 2011.

For more information and to download applications, go to the website.

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Left to right: Xiaowei Song, Pulin Yu, Kenneth Rockwood, Chinese Community Doctors (3), Xianghua Fang

Led in Canada by Dr. Kenneth Rockwood of the Geriatric Medicine Research Unit (GMRU) and in China by Dr. Xianghua Fang at the Beijing Institute of Geriatrics, a team of researchers are spending three years working together on issues that arise due to an aging population

The increasing proportion of elderly people presents multiple challenges for health care, and this is particularly dramatic in China where  between 2000 and 2050, the proportion of people aged 65 and older will rise from 7% to 23%, numbering more than 332 million.

There is a great amount of health data on this population  accumulated in China, but the research capacity to process and explore these data is still limited.  This collaboration makes  use of resources and skills of those at the GMRU to help advance understanding of this problem in China.

Representing the Chinese team in Canada is Shi Jing, an epidemiologist who is not only acquiring the skills to analyze the Chinese datasets, but will take these skills back with her to China at the end of her one year stay here, and pass these on to other researchers there.

The Canadian team is currently preparing for a trip to China in May, where they will make several presentations at the 3rd National Conference of the Prevention of Common Diseases in the Elderly in Yichang Hubei, May 7-9.  The China-Canada Collaboration is funded jointly by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Institute of Aging) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Karen Campbell, a PhD student in psychology at the University of Toronto, working with the Rotman Institute, says “We found that older brains are not only less likely to suppress irrelevant information than younger brains, but they can link the relevant and irrelevant pieces of information together and implicitly transfer this knowledge to subsequent memory tasks.

Dr. Lynn Hasher, whose work at the Rotman Institute focuses on inhibitory control over the contents of working memory, explains the advantage of this process: 

“This could be a silver lining to aging and distraction. Older adults with reduced attentional regulation seem to display greater knowledge of seemingly extraneous co-occurrences in the environment than younger adults. As this type of knowledge is thought to play a critical role in real world decision- making, older adults may be the wiser decision-makers compared to younger adults because they have picked up so much more information.”

Read the full article here.

Presented by the Nova Scotia Department of Seniors, the Summit “will gather international, national and provincial perspectives on the economic and societal changes that arise from an aging population. Join 350 Summit delegates from a wide variety of social and economic sectors. Make connections, and share opportunities and information that will help your organization further your mandate and interests in today’s and tomorrow’s Silver Economy.”

The Summit is modeled after a series of three events held by the Silver Economy Network of European Regions, the most recent being held in June 2007 in Spain, and is the first Silver Economy Summit to be held outside of the European Union.

The organizers of the Silver Economy Summit invite submissions of papers in three theme areas. (click the link below to read more)

Telomere

In short:

“Telomeres are the tails of chromosomes; they are an indicator of history and replicative potential of the cell. Research in the last three decades indicates that telomeres are key factors in several biological fields such as cancer and ageing. Because of the long lifespan of humans and their short telomeres, attrition in telomere length may be a major determinant of human ageing not only at cellular level, but also at organ and perhaps systemic levels. The research contributed to the understanding of how telomeres protect chromosomes from degradation and identified telomerase, the enzyme that preserves telomere length and integrity.” (read the full article here)

Recent studies carried out by the prize recipients have shown that the enzyme telomerase has restorative capabilities for telomeres and can help keep these cells in a healthy condition. Dr. Jean Pierre Baeyens, of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics says “…the ageing process remains a large domain of research and all mechanisms are not depicted yet. These recent discoveries are a real step forward to attract young scientist to the new fields of research and clinical practice in Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology.”

Click here to watch a video of the Nobel Prize announcement, with a short explanatory presentation of the work.

“The aim of the 2nd national conference on positive aging is to bring together an interdisciplinary audience of health professionals and researchers to address some of the issues and challenges facing the aging population today. Hear about the most current research findings from leading experts, learn how research can be translated into practice, and discover useable resources to promote healthier, more positive living for Canada’s older adult population. The importance of purpose and meaning of the later life as well as lessons for health and longevity will be emphasized.

The conference will provide informative lectures, discussions, workshops, poster sessions and ample networking opportunities. A highlight of this conference will be to hear from the Older Adults.”

The IPCE has also put out the call for abstracts for this conference. Topics include (but are not limited to)

• Age Friendly Communities
• Aging and Technology
• Aging and the Arts
• Caregivers/Caregiving
• Chronic Disease Management
• Communication
• Cultural and Ethnic Diversity
• Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
• Depression and Mental Health
• Ethical Issues
• Falls and Falls Prevention
• Home and Community Care
• Medication
• Mobility and Assistive Devices
• Nutrition
• Oral Health
• Physical Activity and Exercise
• Rural and Remote Issues
• Spirituality
• Substance Abuse & Mis-Use
• Supportive and Safe Environments
• The Built Environment

Click here for advance notice, and here for abstract submission.

John Mlacak, 73 Former Nortel manager faces a 30 per cent pension loss (via Globe&Mail)

“It’s also tearing the fabric of Canadian society. Retirement anxiety is changing our notion of personal wealth. Where once a house and two cars were symbols of success, today the measure is more likely to be the size of your nest egg. And as with any wealth metric, there is a class system. At the top of the system is a shrinking royalty. The majority of them are public servants: About 84 per cent of public-sector workers are pension plan members, most of whom have gold-plated pensions designed to guarantee retirees fixed incomes.”

Some fast facts :

• 84% of public service workers have pensions.
• 78% of these plans are gold plated defined benefit pensions
• 25% of private sector workers have a pension plan
• 16% of these plans are gold plated defined benefit pensions
• 11 million workers, or 60 per cent, of Canada’s workers have no pension at all
• 8 million or 45 per cent, have no pensions or registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs)

Read the full article, with interactive features and discussions,  here.