A letter dated April 15, 2009 was received from Linda Bowering, Chair, Coordinating Committee, Aging Issues Network indicating that (a) the Coordinating Committee will be meeting to discuss the future of the AIN and (b) every effort will be made to keep members of the AIN informed of all important issues that arise. The main purpose of the letter was to request any thoughts and ideas that member organizations may have and would be willing to share with the Aging Issues Network.
In response to this request and on behalf of the St. John’s-Avalon Chapter, a commentary was prepared which was forwarded on April 28 to the Aging Issues Coordinating Committee. A response dated May 14 was received from Linda Bowering based on a meeting of the Coordinating Committee held on May 7. While our submission called for substantial democratic change in the method by which the Aging Issues Network operates, there was no indication in the response that those unelected members who represent us on the Coordinating Committee are willing to consider serious change that might secure the future of the Network. It seems evident that financial support for the Network will be more difficult to obtain without a full review of its operation. The Bowering letter did concede that: (a) there will be financial reports and a report from the Chair at each network general meeting; (b) more formal requests will be made from members organizations for meeting agenda items; (c) a Communications Committee is a good idea but no concrete action was suggested to take this issue any further. (d) there will be an attempt to clarify the core issues of concern to the Network and presumably on which the Network will make recommendations to the various levels of government.
Finally, there was an offer to meet with our Board to discuss the issues raised and this meeting took place at our Board meeting held October 7, 2009. Kathleen Connors, newly appointed Chair of the Aging Issues Coordinating Committee and Emily White, newly hired Coordinator attended the meeting.
8. April 14, 2009: Affinity Group on Aging Research: On Tuesday, April 14, I attended a Seminar at the Health Sciences Centre presented by Dr. Wendy Young, Research Chair on Aging at MUN, who spoke on “Age Friendly Communities”. She talked about various research initiatives all intended to provide information on how to optimize the quality of life for older Newfoundland and Labrador Canadians. What are the best models of care available and how do we go about providing needed services for older members of our society? How can we provide relevant information to older members of the community that enable then to make healthy food choices and generally healthy life style choices? What are the major factors associated with healthy aging? Can we convince our political masters to pay more attention to ensuring that communities in this province are more age friendly than at present? These are some of the questions receiving attention at the research level and which clearly need more attention at the political level and by extension by the public at large.
