Decade of Healthy Ageing & a Resource Portal in Canada

Ageing. Aging. With or without an “e”, no matter how you spell the word, it amounts to the same process for us all; it’s the healthy part that’s the variant global challenge. In December 2020, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2021-2030 as the Decade of Healthy Ageing and as we enter the 4^th year you can still catch up on where and how this initiative has progressed by subscribing to the Update Newsletter on the DHA Platform the last of which I received Feb.16^th.

If you want to learn and participate in the dialogue on the Decade of Healthy Ageing in Canada there is a resource portal Healthy Aging CORE Canada which you can also sign up for. CORE stands for Collaborative Online Resources and Education. While this portal primarily invites “local, regional, provincial, and national non-profit, government, and academic organizations and coalitions” to join, you too as an older citizen can benefit from some of the content sources.

Healthy Aging CORE had its start as a knowledge hub first in the province of British Columbia and then Alberta as funded through the United Way. In 2021 the Government of Canada announced its support of the national portal with funding of $250K under the pan-Canadian New Horizons for Seniors Program launched in 2004 to help improve the well-being and quality of life older adults to stay engaged in their communities.

In addition to news updates, resources on CORE include access to current webinars such as the one on Feb.29^th How Technology Can Reduce Isolation and Loneliness among Older Adults hosted by the Ontario Age-Friendly Communities Outreach Program. Other resources on include checklists, toolkits, reports, research studies and other materials on topics relevant to those working or volunteering in support of healthy aging for older adults.

One of the five groups I’m registered for online on CORE is COURAGE: Action for Better Aging of which I’m a participant member. Led by Covenant Health and SE Health this is a national social movement formed to help older adults in their healthy aging journey on their own terms. Based on my other keen interests featured regularly on this blog, two other CORE listed groups I signed onto are Social Prescribing and the Technology Resource Library.

My first best suggestion for those of you who have not yet encountered Healthy Aging CORE Canada is to jump right in on the well curated News section and then pass the website link on to others in your circle. Once you decide to join on as a group member then I would encourage adding to the content to contribute to the awareness more broadly to the Decade of Healthy Ageing in Canada and around the world.