Highlights from the 2022 Summer Program in Aging
Between May 9 – 20, 2022 the University of Calgary Brenda Strafford Centre on Aging hosted the 2022 CIHR-IA Summer Program on Aging (SPA). Thirty-nine Canadian trainees competitively selected by CIHR and 6 Senior Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health attended. The 2022 SPA was held virtually and organized around the topic of Neurodegenerative and Cerebrovascular Diseases in Aging. The educational program consisted of small group project work facilitated by a pair of interdisciplinary mentors, panels and presentations covering diverse topics relevant to the SPA 2022 theme, a lively debate about biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease, an Arts-Based Opportunities to Understand and Transcend (ABOUT) Dementia series, personal and professional development sessions, and networking opportunities with both persons with lived experience and colleagues from low-to-middle income nations. Attendees were introduced to the Canadian Consortium for Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA), the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR).
Early on we decided that a key element of SPA 2022 would be including people with lived experience of dementia and their care partners in the program. Roger Marple and Lisa Poole represented both groups on our Planning Committee. Jennifer Bethell, who represented the CCNA on the Planning Committee, and the CCNA Engagement of People with Lived Experiences of Dementia (EPLED) Advisory Group, also provided invaluable input. People with lived experience served as panelists and presenters. They were invited to attend all of SPA 2022 sessions. Finally, through the good graces of Dementia Network Calgary, we were also able to secure a panel of citizen reviewers who provided feedback on the lay titles and abstracts developed by the trainees for their small group project.
Two other cross-cutting themes integrated within the SPA 2022 program were Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and interdisciplinarity. The first was addressed in multiple ways, including dedicated sessions on the topic, the involvement of Îyârhe Nakoda Nation Elder Alice Kaquitts in opening our program each week, a GBHI-hosted session on global dementia research, and providing trainees with opportunities to create their own personal EDI statement as well as incorporating EDI considerations into their group project. Promotion of interdisciplinarity in dementia research was explicitly addressed in an early SPA 2022 session and was implicit in all other aspects of the program, which featured over 45 faculty with expertise ranging from animal models exploring basic biological mechanisms to public health.
We thank all those involved in creating this educational experience. Our organizing team is still thinking about ways to preserve the legacy of SPA 2022, but its real, true, and essential legacy will be the trainees who participated and the contributions that they will make during their brilliant careers.
Learn more about the people and the program
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