GRC News – December 2023
READ THE WHOLE ISSUE HERE.
We are pleased to distribute the December 2023 issue of the GRC News.
GRC Director Andrew Wister's Foreword:
As Director of the Simon Fraser University Gerontology Research Centre (GRC), I am delighted to share with you the December 2023, Volume 42, Issue 2 of the GRC News. I want to begin my message by extending warm Holiday Wishes to the wide-ranging Gerontology community, comprised of SFU students, faculty, research and support staff, and administration; community members working in the field; seniors and organizations serving older adults; government personnel; our many benefactors; and those working in the private sector to meet the diverse needs of older people. This issue continues to highlight a number of activities celebrating the 40th anniversary of the GRC (1982) and department (1983), in particular, the Ellen Gee Memorial Lecture. We spotlight a number of research and community outreach activities carried out by GRC members and gerontology faculty, research staff, and students.
The GRC members and department had a very strong presence at the Canadian Association on Gerontology Annual Scientific and Educational Meeting held in Toronto ON, October 26-28, 2023; and the Gerontological Society of America Meeting held in Tampa Bay, FL, November 8-12, 2023. Additionally, the newest post-doctoral fellow of the GRC, Julie Beadle, is interviewed about their research program in hearing loss, social isolation and cognition among older adults. We also recognize several of our benefactors in this newsletter, who we are deeply indebted for their continued support of the research, teaching and outreach activities of the GRC and department. We look back at 2023 with both positive and negative emotions. While the world continues to recover from the pandemic and attempts to address issues that were exposed, such as deficiencies in our long-term care system in Canada, we continue to be challenged by systemic problems. Global conflict, economic problems, ageism, and the erosion of tolerance of diversity, to name a few, compromise the well-being of older people, and the communities and societies in which we all live. Simon Fraser University’s Gerontology Research Centre is committed to our mission of enhancing the health and well-being of older people through research, training, and knowledge dissemination via well-established community connections. I hope that you enjoy this issue of the GRC News.