Social inclusion exists when older people can participate as valued, respected and contributing members of society. On the other hand, social exclusion exists when older people experience varying forms of disadvantage such as exclusion from: economic or material resources, social participation, access to basic services, access to outdoor spaces and public buildings, and disengagement from active participation in civic or political institutions and decision making.

In 2002 WHO developed a policy framework on Active Ageing, the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age. It applies to both individuals and population groups. Maintaining autonomy and independence for older people is a key goal in the policy framework for active ageing. Maintaining independence is a cross-cutting theme as it is the result of six key determinants: economic, health and social services, behavioural, personal, physical environment and social environment.

Aging and mental health addresses a wider range of topics from the determinants of positive mental health, to support the support and treatment of dementia, pain management, depression, disabilities, personality disorders, high risk older adults, eating disorders, crisis intervention, substance abuse and more. Improved quality of mental health services through increased capacity of community providers to treat and support older persons with mental health issues both in institutional settings and in the community is an important goal of this research theme.

The importance of including the experiences of people living with dementia has been historically slower than including professionals supporting older people, family members and older people themselves. Yet 1 in 3 people will experience dementia, either by receiving a diagnosis of the condition or knowing someone else with the diagnosis. Progress since the 1980s has been rapid in terms of volume of research, sources of funding and increasing inter-disciplinary interest in dementia studies. Social Science has been slower as a discipline (Innes 2009) to actively engage with dementia and to contribute to the more established clinical and biomedical understandings of dementia. Yet Social Science, and critical social gerontology, has much to offer to understandings of dementia, and what this means for both policy directives and care practices that shape the context of lived experiences of dementia. Including people living with dementia in research as participants with stories and experiences to share has become accepted for some time as good practice in the dementia field (Goldsmith 1997, Wilkinson (ed) 2002).

More recently the importance of involvement in research in a variety of ways, such as advisors to funded projects, co-presenters and co-producers of knowledge to partners in the research process from initial conceptualization of research problems and questions to explore through to the production of outcomes to influence policy and practice (e.g., Innes, Calvert and Bowker 2020). This thematic area of work within the Gilbrea Centre encompasses all aspect of social inclusion of people living with dementia, their care partners and supporters and actively engages with a process of how to best support improvements and achieve social change to promote both dementia inclusive practices which aligns to the World Health Organizations overarching call for age-friendly environments.

Our SHARE group exemplifies our approach to engaging older people, including those with dementia, in shaping the future direction of research hosted within the Gilbrea Centre. Ongoing projects include regional collaborations, for example with a local care farm delivering a program of outdoor based support to people living with dementia; and work with Centre3 for Artistic and Social Practice who are working to raise awareness of dementia through the creative media of a Play and workshops. National work includes working within the RaDAR Team led from the University of Saskatchewan examining remote and rural dementia care, and International work with INTERDEM examining psychosocial aspects of dementia; the University of Malta examining hospital based support and in the UK examining the lived experiences of veterans living with dementia in the community (funded by Forces in Mind Trust) and radiographers views and experiences of delivering quality services to people living with dementia (funded by the Royal College of Radiographers).

References: Goldsmith, M. (1997) Hearing the voices of people with dementia. London: Jessica Kingsley; Innes, A. (2009) Dementia Studies: A social science perspective. London: Sage.; Innes, A., Calvert, L., and Bowker, G. (2020) Dementia the basics. London: Routledge; Wilkinson, H. (ed) (2001) Perspectives of People Living with Dementia. London: Jessica Kingsley; World Health Organisation (2002) Active Aging: A Policy Framework

Dr. Gavin Andrews is a human geographer by training, meaning that conceptually much of his research is interested in the dynamics between aging, space and place.  He has been instrumental in the development of ‘geographical gerontology’ over the past two decades; his books, chapters and journal articles reviewing the state of the sub-discipline, and also providing suggestions for new theoretical directions that it might take up. Specifically, in recent years, he has helped articulate possibilities for post-humanist and non-representational theory in aging studies. Here, his key work – with Cameron Duff - has developed a three-part explanation on how aging occurs processually across contexts (i) aging emerging and expressed through relational material assemblages; (ii) aging enacted by open vital bodies and with vibrant objects; (iii) aging performed in immediate more-than-representational space-times. Notably, in the last two years, Andrews has been working on the idea of “All-World Aging” that, as a research approach, might consider the aging of all entities.

His initial papers have underpinned the approach by discussing its theoretical basis in classical thermodynamics and entropic increase in systems, and have specifically called research attention to the co-aging of (i) all and parts of biological organisms (all living things, from tiny organisms to complex plants and animals); (ii) objects (all non-living things, from basic materials to complex technological constructions); (iii) earth, ecological and cosmological systems (the living planet and beyond). Empirically Andrews has engaged with a wide range of topics over the years including residential care, complementary medicine, friendships, wartime and nursing (all as they relate to the aging experience) at times because they are important in their own right, and at times because they help showcase some of his theoretical ideas. He has been the PI on large grants, such as from the UK-NHS and the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation. In 2021 he was awarded a Higher Doctorate (Doctor of Science) from the University of Nottingham for the contributions he has made to human geography and its study of health and aging. 

In Dr. James Gillett’s aging research, he makes use of a broad range of theoretical perspectives in the humanities and social sciences, drawing on poststructuralist, posthumanist, feminist and postcolonial theory. Methodologically James makes use of conventional social sciences methodologies that are located within an interpretative ontology, such as qualitative analysis, ethnography and grounded theory along with critical analytical practices in the humanities and cultural studies like discourse analysis, historiography, deconstruction and semiotics. Recognizing the relevance of community-based research and participant action research, he has a commitment to facilitative research capacity among local community organizations and groups and to engage in a wide range of knowledge mobilization and exchange with participants and members of the local, research and university communities. This research experience provides the basis for research exploring questions about the experience of older adults who have companion animals in their everyday lives.

Living with companion animals require that older adults participate in institutional structures that they otherwise would not encounter. A companion animal like a dog requires routines that entail, in most cases, not only regular physical activity but also participation in social networks organized around care of the animal. There are also complex familial relationships between older adults and their companion animals that can shape and transform self-perception and perceptions of age and its implications for being an older adult at this historical moment. Of particular interest are the points of convergence and divergence between the experiences of older men and older women with companion animals. Companion animals may buffer the isolation and disengagement encouraged within many hegemonic institutional structures with regards to age and the meaning of being an older adult for both men and women.

Beyond the study of human animal relations, James’s aging research extends to the experiences of older adults in health care. As part of an interdisciplinary team across the social sciences and health sciences, they are exploring the process of deprescribing among older adults who are experiencing polypharmacy. Another area of research is the use of narrative and storytelling as a means of making sense of the experiences of aging.

Dr. Meridith Griffin’s research and pedagogical interests are focused on the lived, embodied experience of midlife and older adults in various social and physical contexts. A good proportion of her extant research has been located within communities where she has spoken to individuals about their needs and desires, aspirations, and disappointments—be that about body image, beauty work, chronic illness, sport and physical activity involvement, visual impairment, or embodied learning in later life. Much of this work has focused upon setting these needs and desires against the broader social context of what programming and/or services are available and how these might be improved.

Within Dr. Griffin’s work on aging and physical activity, her goal is engendering increased participation and engagement (when desired) for the average, every-day participant – as compared to the predominant focus within the field of sport sciences on performance. Meridith is increasingly interested in the intersections of age and aging with other sociodemographic characteristics, and how these enable, constrain, and generally influence physical activity participation.

Current solo and collaborative projects are exploring: 1) in/exclusion within physical cultures for those with a so-called ‘non-normative’ body (2SLGBTQIA+; Black, Indigenous or Person of Colour; disabled or person with a disability; fat, thick/thicc, curvy or plus-sized; non-binary or gender non-conforming; and older (55+); 2) menopause and experiences of movement; 3) aging from childhood cancer (exploring stories of engagement/risk with health-conscious behaviors, including physical activity); 4) leisure biographies (dynamic reminiscence focused on past/influential leisure experiences); and 5) queering later life physical activity (emotions, queer identity, and the psychological adaptation to age-related body changes). To develop an understanding of the temporal and emplaced dynamics of embodiment in leisure and movement (physical activity) spaces, Meridith employs critical qualitative forms of inquiry via various approaches: narrative, ethnography, life history/biography, discourse and content analyses, and creative and arts-based methods.

Dr. Nicole Dalmer’s research interests are transdisciplinary and lie at the intersections of a critical examination of aging in place, the social organization of care work, and the implications of gerontechnological optimism.

Exploring the role of social infrastructures (i.e. public libraries) in supporting social inclusion in later life is supported by a SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) Insight Development Grant “Aging in Place with Public Libraries: Mobilizing Social Infrastructures for Social Inclusion”. Library and information science (LIS) scholars have demonstrated the importance of public libraries as hubs of sociocultural connection, with relationships between patrons, library staff, and the surrounding community cultivating social capital and reducing social isolation. Gerontology researchers have highlighted sociocultural links as having a measurable, positive impact on older adults’ physical and mental wellbeing, including bolstering feelings of social inclusion. Despite the clear intersection between these findings, there is little synergy between gerontology and LIS. What remains unknown is the landscape of public library spaces, services, and materials for older adults and how these collectively impact older adults’ experiences of social inclusion – this grant seeks to explore this unknown.

Contributions of information work to family care work is centered around Nicole’s doctoral work, she uses an institutional ethnographic method of inquiry and arts-based mapping exercises to make visible the information work that permeates the care work of families of people living with dementia who are also aging at home. As aging in place fulfills an economic imperative and is increasingly a part of countries’ policy responses to grapple with the rising number of older adults, it behooves us to understand how information practices and information tools support older adults to age in a place in a manner that works best for them.

Aging and the role of information technologies is encompassed in how conversations about aging populations often trade in alarmist demographic predictions of a 'silver tsunami' with dire consequences for the distribution of social resources and intergenerational collaboration. Yet optimism is also pinned on new technologies that might produce more positive aging futures by lessening health-care burdens, empowering resilient capacities, encouraging risk-averse lifestyles and enabling ‘aging in place’. This project, “Being Connected at Home: Digital Infrastructures of Health and Healthism in Later Life” is a Joint Programming Initiative funded through More Years Better Lives, a collaboration with Spain, Sweden, and the Netherlands (with the Canadian work plan funded through CIHR).  Research associated with this theme investigates fundamental changes in the contemporary experiences of later life, at the intersection of digital infrastructures, place and the experience of ‘being connected’.  Along with colleagues at Trent University, Nicole is exploring the role of a variety of digital devices in later life, making visible the ways that self-tracking technologies and digital apps are used to create new modes and styles of measuring, calculating, storing and sharing information about the aging self.