News

By Kim Barnhardt

Accessible, inclusive, and grounded in lived experience is how the McMaster Collaborative for Health and Aging approaches research in aging. With an engaged group of older adult and caregiver partners, the Collaborative has launched a suite of tools and guidance documents to help trainees and researchers across Ontario and beyond conduct research for people to optimize health and wellbeing throughout the lifespan.

From a tool that offers practical strategies to help researchers communicate using clear language with older adults about research – it could be argued we should speak plainly with everyone – to how to plan and manage meetings for effective patient engagement, the guidance is practical and centres those with lived experience. Closing the Loop: Strengthening Your Research Partnerships Through Communication, is based on the concept that when you engage people with lived experience in a project, “smaller loops of engagement strengthen the larger loop of partnership”. This means following up after meetings and discussions and keeping them in the loop about the impact and opportunities after a project has ended.  

Key to the development of these resources is the group of 10 older adult and caregiver partners from diverse backgrounds who have experience with life-limiting conditions, a range of abilities and chronic health conditions, as well as caregivers. To ensure patient diversity, the Collaborative conducted outreach through community-based organizations, committees and advocacy groups who serve people from equity-deserving communities. Researchers also identified several patient partners from previous research that focused on varied health conditions to ensure a range of health perspectives are reflected in their partnership strategy.

“We have a really robust older adult engagement strategy and a very engaged group who have been involved in co-production of these resources and tools,” says Dr. Rebecca Ganann, co-lead of the Collaborative, Associate Professor, McMaster University School of Nursing, a scientist with McMaster Institute for Research on Aging (MIRA) and lead of the EMBOLDEN Study, a major strategic initiative for MIRA. Dr. Brenda Vrkljan, Professor in McMaster University’s School of Rehabilitation Science, is the other co-lead of the Collaborative.

The tools, which target trainees and researchers, are aimed at strengthening research partnerships. Equity by Design: A Guide for Aging and Health Researchers builds on the Fairness is Excellence framework developed by Dr. Nav Persaud through OSSU with a specific lens on older adults. Created by older adults, researchers, and a student, this tool underscores why equity in aging is important and should be embedded in research. This guide was inspired by Subhash Dighe, a member of OSSU’s Patient Partner Advisory Council. Created by older adults, trainees and researchers, this tool underscores why equity in aging is important and should be embedded in health research. In addition to the practical dos and don’ts, quotes from older adults and trainees provide a human element to round out the tools.

OSSU’s support of this work and research into helping older adults age well – especially important with Canada’s growing population of older adults– is essential.

“This is all under the OSSU umbrella – financial, partner opportunities to build relationships with policy and practice – it’s incredibly supportive to mobilize these resources and help us reach a broader network throughout the province,” says Dr. Ganann. “We were able to have one of the policy roundtables on aging research. To have that opportunity through OSSU’s established mechanism gave some of the researchers a much broader opportunity, like reaching deputy ministers, that people embraced.”