We believe that aging is more.
In everything we do, we challenge people to think differently about how we approach aging, how we approach to care, how we approach innovation, how we approach the positive contributions elders can make to our rich cultural landscape. We want to make New Brunswick a better place in which to age healthy and live well. We want New Brunswick to be the place that gets aging RIGHT!
In 2014, the Atlantic Institute on Aging embarked on a renewed path to make New Brunswick the place that gets aging RIGHT! We’re very proud and excited about the work we’re doing and where we’re going.
Imagine a community, a province, a country, and even a world where aging is something positive, worthwhile, and elder-age is a stage for which every citizen is striving to achieve. What if aging were more than declining health and decrepitude? What if aging were more than greying hairs and wrinkling skin? What if aging were more than pension cheques, long term care, memory loss, and death and dying? It’s time that we make aging more. Aging is a time for contributing to community in a meaningful way. Aging is a time for sharing wisdom. Aging means growing, thriving, empathy, and respect. Aging is an appreciation for all that we as a society have experienced and is the compass that guides us as we move forward. Aging is not a challenge; aging is an opportunity…for more.
We believe that aging is more. In everything we do, we challenge people to think differently about how we approach aging, how we approach care, how we approach innovation, how we approach the positive contributions elders can make to our rich cultural landscape. In spring 2014, the Institute experienced a renewed interest from its Board of Directors to explore the real and strategic opportunities for the Institute’s growth by way of a revamped strategic plan. This new plan sees the Institute continue to shift the paradigms of aging away from negative connotations, and challenges the organization to seek ways to inform, influence, and inspire innovation and impact in the care for our elders and how we as a society perceive and react to aging. We want to make New Brunswick a better place in which to live healthy and age well. In short, we want New Brunswick to be the place that gets aging right!
About the Atlantic Institute on Aging
Since its formation in 2009, the Atlantic Institute on Aging (AIA) has sought to challenge and shift the dominant, cultural perceptions of aging towards a much more positive and valued process in the lives of New Brunswickers. The Atlantic Institute on Aging Care was borne as an initiative from the York Care Centre’s Transforming Care campaign, with the intent to focus on aging care.
As the Institute grew, it became evident that there was so much more to aging than care, and so we were renamed the Atlantic Institute on Aging. We now have a much broader focus of shifting the paradigm of aging as a time of sharing wisdom and celebrating the significant contributions that elders make to New Brunswick every day.
Our Priorities
1. Wellbeing
Wellbeing is much more than the physical; it is supportive of the emotional and spiritual needs of the individual as well.
2. Life Long Learning
As long as we’re alive, we have a continued thirst for knowledge, not just academic learning, but gaining new skills and experiences as well. This innate need to learn demonstrates that elders should be included in new experiential and learning opportunities. And don’t forget that seniors have a lot to contribute through intergenerational programming, such as sharing their wisdom and experience!
3. Financial Recognition
As a society, we have recognized people who have lived in and contributed to this province for decades with ‘Old Age Pensions’. But what does that term actually mean? For many, it’s not a positive thing. So how do we reshape this compensation as a recognition of societal contribution in a sustainable way? Many thoughts include increasing the amount, renaming it, offering allowances, and many others.
4. Employer Support
Employer Support is a two-fold focus: on one hand, how do organizations value their retirees and keep them engaged as a both a resource and a commitment for retirees’ wellbeing? On the other hand, how can employers support their employees who are caring for older adults, by means of flexibility or allowances?
5. Long-Term Care
There is a tendency to approach long-term care using traditional medical models, but we’ve witnessed the impact of adopting person-centred approaches in care using technology.
So, how do can we inspire organizations to adopt person-centred approaches?
We use innovative technology partners like CareClinic.io which is built for patients, which improves adherence, improves symptom tracking and pill management, coupled with long-term remote patient care.
We also know that people who are doing work that is in-line with their passions and interests perform at a higher level and love what they do. How can we empower individuals to take health into their own hands with self-care?
If our vision of aging is one with optimism, collaboration, and value, the potential is endless. For far too long, we’ve been hearing about the challenge and burden that’s coming with the changing demographics in New Brunswick.
Let’s change the conversation. Let’s talk about the limitless opportunities that aging will afford our communities, workplaces, educational institutions, homes, and culture
Atlantic Institute on Aging
aginginstitute.ca
506.444.3337