Brenda Strafford Centre on Aging

Inclusivity

Working with compassion, integrity, and humility to promote an age-positive and age-inclusive culture guided by the needs and interests of diverse older adults.

Collaboration

Establishing intergenerational, interdisciplinary, and cross-sectoral partnerships to build capacity in research and education in the field of aging.

Innovation

Developing and translating evidence on age-inclusive technologies, environments, practices, and policies to improve the health and well-being of older adults, in a sustainable manner.

Leadership

Being recognized as a valuable hub within our institution, our community, and beyond for catalyzing connections and advancing innovations to better serve the older adult population.

Older adults are at increased risk of social frailty, where an individual's social factors negatively interact with physical and cognitive challenges, heightening the likelihood of adverse outcomes as they age. The mandated social distancing and isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a rise in the prevalence of social frailty.

Dr. Jayna Holroyd-Leduc (Centre on Aging Academic Lead, UCalgary) recently collaborated with Dr. Monika Kastner (Associate Professor at the University of Toronto [UofT]) and others on a systematic scoping review (published in BMC Geriatrics 2024) to identify feasible social frailty interventions for use during public health emergencies.

Potentially effective interventions were identified across six categories: 1) psychological self-management; 2) self-management education; 3) leisure activity; 4) physical activity; 5) information communication technology; 6) social assistive robots and computer agents.

Older woman wearing a medical mask, looking out a window

Drs. Holroyd-Leduc and Kastner, along with graduate students Brooklynn Fernandes (UCalgary) and Krystle Amog (UofT), will lead a workshop at the international Pandemic EVIDENCE Collaboration conference in Banff, AB this May. The workshop will focus on developing strategies to effectively implement social frailty interventions during public health emergencies. Findings from the scoping review are also guiding further research to address social frailty. This includes research being led by Dr. Kastner, in collaboration with the UCalgary Centre on Aging and other partners across Canada, to co-design the first-ever social frailty intervention specifically tailored to meet the needs of diverse older adults.