Eddy Elmer, a member of the SAC and a PhD student in gerontology, will be presenting findings of the Committee’s Social Isolation and Loneliness Project at the 27th Annual John K. Friesen Conference, to be held May 16-17 at Simon Fraser University, Harbour Centre Campus.
Carol Anne Young, a senior social planner with the City of Vancouver, along with Anthony Kupferschmidt, the Executive Director of the West End Seniors’ Network and an SAC member, will comment on the report and discuss how it fits with the City’s Healthy City Strategy.
The two-day Friesen conference will address seniors’ isolation from a variety of perspectives: micro, meso and macro. Among “big” topics to be covered will be ageism, the lack of affordable housing that is plaguing Canada’s big cities, and ways in which social isolation renders older adults vulnerable to victimization (elder abuse, neglect). Innovations in policy and practice will also be discussed – that is, ways in which we as a society can help people to move from isolation to inclusion or prevent isolation from happening in the first place.
Everyone is welcome to attend. To see the agenda and to register, visit http://www.sfu.ca/fc/2018/
