Media Releases

University of Toronto conference on the aging population to be held January 17 & 18

January 9, 2014

TORONTO, ON – On Jan­u­ary 17 and 18, 2014, stu­dents from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to will host a con­fer­ence to address the press­ing social and health­care needs of our aging pop­u­la­tion. By 2036, near­ly one in four Cana­di­ans will be 65 years of age or old­er. As a result, Cana­da will face a poten­tial $70 bil­lion increase in the cost of health­care over the next 20 years.

Host­ed by under­grad­u­ate stu­dents from the Lab­o­ra­to­ry Med­i­cine and Patho­bi­ol­o­gy Stu­dent Union (LMPSU) and the Health Stud­ies Stu­dents’ Union (HSSU), the con­fer­ence will pro­vide unique social and bio­med­ical per­spec­tives that will address the com­plex issues pre­sent­ed by an aging pop­u­la­tion.

Top­ics dis­cussed will include neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­eases such as Alzheimer’s and new approach­es to stroke recov­ery. Pre­sen­ters will also address issues of home care, com­mu­ni­ty health nurs­ing, inno­v­a­tive mod­els of geri­atric care and con­cerns for health pol­i­cy.

“We’re unsure of how an increase in Canada’s aging pop­u­la­tion will impact the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of our health­care sys­tem, as well as what it means for age-relat­ed dis­eases like Alzheimer’s,” said Bene­dict Dar­ren, Co-Pres­i­dent of the Depart­ment of Lab­o­ra­to­ry Med­i­cine and Patho­bi­ol­o­gy Stu­dent Union (LMPSU).

Held at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Bahen Cen­tre for Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy, this inter­dis­ci­pli­nary con­fer­ence will fea­ture world-renowned speak­ers, an inter­ac­tive pan­el dis­cus­sion and a non-prof­it fair.

“We real­ize that Canada’s aging pop­u­la­tion is a preva­lent issue, but it isn’t being dis­cussed among young peo­ple,” said Kath­leen Qu, Pres­i­dent of HSSU. “We want to get stu­dents involved in this dis­cus­sion. It’s our future.”

Event Details:

Fri­day, Jan­u­ary 17 from 4:30pm to 9:00pm
Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 18 from 8:30am to 1:00pm
Bahen Cen­tre for Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy, 40 St. George St., Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to

Free admis­sion

Reg­is­ter: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ATRieN7IHD3-PuZ6XADiPrITcLakwFFpLfLECIWMbdU/viewform

Keynote Speak­ers:

Dr. Lynn McDon­ald, Pro­fes­sor Fac­ul­ty of Social Work and Direc­tor of the Insti­tute for Life Course and Aging

Dr. San­dra Black, Pro­fes­sor of Neu­rol­o­gy, from the Depart­ment of Med­i­cine

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Katie Bab­cock, Web and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Coor­di­na­tor
The Depart­ment of Lab­o­ra­to­ry Med­i­cine and Patho­bi­ol­o­gy (LMP), Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Tel: 416–278-6568
katie.babcock@utoronto.ca
http://www.lmp.utoronto.ca