They have really worked to deinstitutionalize people who have either mild psychiatric conditions or simply dementia. This may make some people uncomfortable but I’m guessing that as we have more people with dementia, it will be very interesting to look at what Denmark is doing to keep people involved and active in a positive culture of acceptance and inclusion.

We’re probably the best country in the world right now that I’m aware of beyond maybe some of the Asian countries that have social constructs and families where they take care of each other… I remember in my family my aunts and my grandparents all came to spend the last years of their lives but more and more we don’t have really those types of relationships in North America and in Canadian Society.

For people who are Gay and Lesbian seniors today, it’s often the case that they have been alienated from their families and have their chosen families of friend networks that they come to depend on. But frequently gay and lesbian people do not have children and can have a harder time finding caregivers. The AIDS epidemic had quite an impact on my generation, it thinned our ranks a bit. There definitely are some very specific challenges for gay and lesbian people as they age and I haven’t seen many people take that on really well. I think developing LGBT positive seniors facilities are critical realizing that people are still sexual when they are older.

Generally speaking, just for older people and from the research that I’ve seen I think the life-long neighborhoods concept shows the most promise. I’ve seen a lot of really small cities do very creative things but it becomes harder to do on a significant scale… On that scale I would say the UK has had the best practices.

Okay, you said that Denmark is a lot of more “open” sort of implying that it’s taboo here to talk about mobility hindrances and dementia?

I think it is and I think people are often embarrassed. People become embarrassed when all of a sudden grandma starts forgetting things and becomes unable to take care of herself but the key is to look at this through your grandparent’s eyes and realize that we’re all going to be there one day. There are all kinds of social pressures and values that come into play, a big one is ageism, and it’s really important that we capitalize on the aging demographic to think not only of the options that we ourselves are going to have as we age but also educate the other generations about seniors because I hope that none of us get treated the way we treated our parent’s generations as they aged.

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