Finding more than challenge in aging

Left to right: Social Work professor Barb Whittington and Kristen Holten, a UVic Law student who helped contribute to the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren publication as part of a co-op work term. In the background, Rosalind Parker and her grandson Eric explore UVic¹s Finnerty Gardens.

April 2009

Guided by the input and direction of our community partners, UVic has earned a national reputation for its work learning from and improving the lives of our aging population.

UVic's Centre on Aging

Since 1992, the University of Victoria's Centre on Aging (COAG) has been at the forefront of national research on improving seniors' lives, including groundbreaking work on cultural differences in caregiving environments, falls prevention and senior-friendly cities. Conducted in partnership with local seniors, their families, organizations, health care providers and the government, COAG-based research on Vancouver Island communities helps enhance the quality of life for aging populations locally and nationally through education and policy recommendations.

Untangling legal issues

Recognizing that more and more grandparents are raising grandchildren without a parent in the home, UVic's School of Social Work and the Parent Support Services of BC developed Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: A Legal Guide . It is the first guidebook of its kind in Canada and helps grandparents understand and navigate the legal complexities involved in raising grandchildren.

In addition to the 126 grandparents throughout BC who replied to research questionnaires, 209 were also interviewed through focus groups at mainland and Vancouver Island intercultural centres, Aboriginal centres and other community locations including in Victoria, Duncan, Nanaimo, Parksville and Qualicum.

“The guidebook is meant to assist grandparents with the sometimes overwhelming legal responsibilities associated with raising grandchildren,” says Dr. Barb Whittington, project co-chair and professor in UVic's School of Social Work. "With this guide in hand, grandparents can fully embrace the joy of raising their kids without being burdened with the often difficult but basic legal questions."

Trouble in mixed medications

How many health care products - prescription and non-prescription medications or natural health products - do you take? If it’s more than one, you could be at risk of experiencing a serious or fatal adverse drug reaction (ADR). If you’'e a senior, and taking more than six prescription medications, you have an 80 per cent chance of having an ADR.

"Seniors are at a high risk of experiencing ADRs including the fact that their bodies metabolize drugs differently and doctors don't always take this into account when prescribing medication," says UVic anthropology professor Peter Stephenson. "ADRs can also produce symptoms that mimic illnesses often found in older adults. For example, the combination of anti-depressants and sleeping pills can cause the symptoms of Alzheimer's and dementia. In other words, seniors in reasonably good health may end up being treated for illnesses they don’t have."

But how do you change that? Stephenson says you must understand how seniors view medication. Last fall his team of researchers headed to Parksville and Qualicum Beach - two of five municipalities with the largest proportion of seniors in Canada - to interview 20 seniors. The preliminary results reveal most seniors don't know much about ADRs or how to avoid them, nor do they have someone they can easily rely on who can look at all of their health products and possible interactions.

Stephenson plans to use the results of "A Pilot Study of Seniors' Experiences with Medication" to help design and obtain funding for a comprehensive public education ADRs program.

Researchers from UVic's Centre on Aging, the Vancouver Island Health Authority, Oceanside Seniors' Centre and Vancouver Island University were also involved in the study.

Invention keeps seniors in touch

Staying in touch with loved ones is a challenge for most of the population, but for seniors and people with cognitive and other disabilities it can be an impossible task. However, a unique invention by CanAssist, the University of Victoria’s leading-edge disabilities support program, can help.

CanConnect is a simple Skype interface for free telephone calls and face-to-face chats in real time over the Internet. It is free and designed for people who have never used computers before, are extremely intimidated by them or unable to use a mouse or keyboard. The basic configuration presents users with a gallery of photos of their friends and family members. In order to establish contact, the user simply touches the screen, a button, or looks at the icon. The idea came about because of a request from a CanAssist client whose elderly mother has dementia.

"This program will relieve a personal despair I have felt, knowing that it is important to be near mother in these ending years of her life and not having the means to do that," says Victoria's Ann Jacob, whose 92-year-old mother lives in a nursing home in Tennessee. "I so look forward to seeing her every day and more then once a day saying good morning and giving her a kiss goodnight, sharing more in her life and especially being able to 'be' with her as she goes through something difficult."

A play about seniors hits the road

Joanne is a busy mother with a hectic schedule, MJ has dropped out of school and is marking time working at the local Canadian Tire store, and then there's Grandpa. He's stubborn, fiercely independent, and a worry to both of them. But he refuses to accept that his driving isn't as good as it once was.

These are the characters in a new play about senior drivers - a piece of applied theatre illustrating the results of a UVic interdisciplinary research project on older driver safety. No Particular Place to Go - featuring retired UVic theatre professor John Krich and theatre students Reid Sparling and Anne-Marie Cirillo—reveals the current attitudes towards the issue of senior drivers. "Driving is a highly-charged emotional issue for everyone," says lead researcher Dr. Holly Tuokko of UVic’s Centre on Aging. "The play will help illustrate the different points of view that were revealed in the study and hopefully serve as a starting point for conversation." The research included a series of focus groups in Victoria, Nanaimo, Parksville and Courtenay, looking at attitudes of seniors and their families, health care professionals, police, Motor Vehicles Branch and ICBC on older driver safety.

Mental fitness for all ages

Here are two things that can make you smarter, no matter how old or young you are: 1) get off the couch and 2) do something.

Really, all it takes is 20 minutes of brisk exercise three times a week to help produce new cells - known as neurons - as we age.

Exercise also helps older cells survive and thrive, making the brain better able to adapt and protect itself from disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. However, exercise is not a panacea, and will not completely restore the structure of the brain when parts of it are lost.

UVic neuroscientist Dr. Brian Christie studies the biological mechanisms in the brain that are activated by exercise. A deeper understanding of these mechanisms may ultimately result in new approaches to maintaining and even enhancing brain cells and their connections as we age.

"We now know that new neurons are produced continually throughout our lives and that this process can be ramped up or dampened by our lifestyles," says Christie, an Island Medical Program faculty member. "In other words, the better we take care of our brains, the better they function."

The applications of Christie's research are astonishingly broad. Exercise seems to reduce the impact of any stress on the brain, whether the stress comes from a hard day at work or from such neurological disorders as Alzheimer's disease, autism, stroke or fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.