Coinciding with National Seniors Month, Trent University’s Centre for Aging and Society will co-host Seniors Summit: A Critical Dialogue, a conference exploring insights and solutions for age-friendly communities, on Thursday, May 29, 2014, from 12:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in Wenjack Theatre, Otonabee College.

• Reserve Your Seats: Tickets are $40, or $20 for seniors and students
• Register online or call Laura Warne, City of Peterborough at 705- 748-8830 ext.3211

The Seniors Summit will feature talks by experts in the field of aging, including the Globe and Mail’s Jeffrey Simpson, the author of Chronic Condition: Why Canada’s Health Care System Needs to be Dragged into the 21^st Century, examining how Canadian health-care is ill-adapted to an aging population, and how best to approach this situation. Michael Nolan, chief paramedic service and director of emergency services for the County of Renfrew, and Sergeant Robin Sanders, OPP Crime Prevention, will also present a discussion of the Ontario Community Paramedicine Initiative. Dr. Geoff Fernie, institute director of research at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, will discuss his research focused on developing technology to help people of all ages continue to live in their own homes. Debbie Amaroso, mayor of Sault Ste. Marie, who has led her city to be accepted to the Network of Age Friendly Cities and Communities by the World Health Organization, will share her experience and the steps taken to make Sault Ste. Marie a more age-friendly community as Peterborough embarks on similar programs.

“Fostering a critically-informed discourse on how to best meet the challenges and opportunities of aging lies at the heart of the mission of the Trent Centre for Aging and Society,” said Dr. Mark Skinner, director of the Trent Centre for Aging and Society. “We are very excited to work with the Peterborough Council on Aging and our other partners to host this year’s Seniors Summit at Trent University. The distinguished speakers promise to bring expertise and insight to important issues in the Peterborough region – to help all of us understand that an aging population is nothing to be afraid of.”

The Trent Centre for Aging and Society is a research initiative established in 2013 that draws on Trent's reputation in interdisciplinary excellence to promote research and awareness about aging and old age. The Centre brings together Trent faculty, visiting scholars, students and community members with an interest in aging, and supports innovative research, education and community engagement that is responsive to the challenges and opportunities facing older people and aging communities in Peterborough, across Canada and internationally.

“The Peterborough Council on Aging is delighted to partner with Trent University faculty and our community partners to help Peterborough become an age-friendly community,” said Dr. Jenny Ingram, co-chair of the Peterborough Council on Aging, division lead for geriatric medicine at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC), and recently appointed to the advisory board of the Trent Centre for Aging and Society. “The Seniors Summit focuses this year on developing a critical dialogue with leaders in age-friendly initiatives. We encourage community leaders and older adults to attend to join these efforts.”

Trent University faculty have produced significant research relating to aging populations, and continue to participate in leading conversations about understanding and addressing the demographic shifts facing Canadians:

• The Transformative Role of Voluntarism in Aging Resource Communities: Dr. Mark Skinner, associate professor of Geography at Trent and director of the Trent Centre for Aging and Society, is a rural health geographer with expertise in rural aging, health and social care, and voluntarism. His ongoing research projects funded by the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) and by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) examine how rural people and places are responding to the challenges and opportunities of population aging, particularly the evolving role of the voluntary sector and volunteers in supporting older people and aging communities.
• Regional Specialized Geriatric Services conference: The Trent Centre for Aging & Society is the Academic Partner for this year’s Central East RSGS regional conference on Thursday, June 12, 2014 at Fleming College’s Frost Campus in Lindsay, Ontario. With the theme Collaborating in Complexity: Evolving Partnerships between Gerontological Evidence and Practice, the conference will feature a keynote address by Trent University professor of sociology Dr. Stephen Katz, entitled: “Falls and Falling: The Dialogue Between Research and Experience.”
• Cognitive Impairment Research: Trent sociologists Dr. Stephen Katz and Peri Ballantyne, and psychologist Kevin Peters, are working on a project entitled “Perceptions and Realities of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI): Diagnosis and Treatment for Older Individuals”, funded by the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR). Peters. (http://mciproject.weebly.com/)
• Gender in Aging Populations: Dr. May Chazan, gender and women’s studies professor at Trent and a Fellow of the Trent Centre for Aging and Society, was appointed Canada Research Chair in Feminist and Gender Studies for a five-year term beginning in 2013. Dr. Chazan is carrying out research that investigates why and how older women in different contexts are organizing and networking in global justice movements, to provide critical insights into contemporary struggles for social change.
• Hosting International Scholarly Presentations: The Trent Aging Studies Collaborative (TASC) at Trent University hosted a presentation on “Rural Aging: Canadian Issues and International Contexts” with Dr. Norah Keating of the University of Alberta, an international expert on rural aging. This interdisciplinary conversation was presented in partnership with the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies, Trent/Fleming School of Nursing, and the Canadian Studies, Geography and Sociology undergraduate programs at Trent.

The 2014 Summit is hosted by the Trent Centre for Aging and Society in partnership with the Peterborough Council on Aging, the City of Peterborough, the County of Peterborough, Fleming College, The Peterborough Examiner, The Gardens of Peterborough, Omni Health Care and the Rotary Club of Peterborough.