2023-10-20 16:06:00
Around a large table bathed in an unusually warm sun for the month of October are a variety of people: university researchers, public service employees and residents of the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood.
We are at the Research Center of the University Institute of Geriatrics of Montreal (CRIUGM), where a workshop is being held aimed at designing solutions with and for elderly people to ensure the maintenance of their cognitive health.
The activity is one of the initiatives of the Innovative Quarter, a living laboratory project focused on the co-construction of services and programs intended to make this neighborhood of Montreal more inclusive for its seniors.
Focusing on mobility, communication and cognition, this vast project is led by University of Montreal professors Nathalie Bier (School of Rehabilitation) and Ana Inés Ansaldo (School of Speech Therapy and Audiology). It values the diversity of knowledge, the capacity for action of communities and co-creation.
Collaborate to live better
The participating elderly people share their knowledge.
Credit: Amélie Philibert, University of Montreal
The cognition component is led by Sylvie Belleville, professor in the Department of Psychology at UdeM and holder of the Canada Research Chair in cognitive neuroscience of aging and cerebral plasticity, with researchers Nouha Ben Gaied, director of the Berthiaume Foundation -Du Tremblay, and Patricia Belchior, professor at McGill University.
They team up with representatives from the Côte-des-Neiges library and the Côte-des-Neiges cultural center as well as with elderly people in the neighborhood to promote their cognitive health.
“It’s a different way of doing research, speaking directly to the community concerned and where all participants are equal – both the research team and community partners and users. To promote brain health in older people, it is sometimes easier and more sustainable to do so,” notes Sylvie Belleville.
The CRIUGM workshop therefore aimed to better understand the needs, concerns and interests of seniors in terms of cognition in order to ultimately set up more adapted activities.
Concrete benefits
Sylvie Belleville, listening
Credit: Amélie Philibert, University of Montreal
The meeting opened with a presentation by Sylvie Belleville about neurocognitive disorders and their risk factors (smoking, sedentary lifestyle, alcohol abuse, social isolation, hearing loss, etc.).
Taking this information into account, the elderly were then asked to communicate the activities that they would enjoy and that would preserve their cognitive health. Unanimously, they shared the desire to have access to more social activities that would allow them to discuss and debate. For example, they would like to watch a documentary together, but above all have time to talk about it afterwards.
Also, as the Côte-des-Neiges district is renowned for its ethnocultural diversity, participants said they wanted to learn more about other cultures, in particular by acquiring the basics of another language or by exchanging traditional recipes.
“These are all activities that create connections and are intellectually stimulating. This is what I call “double counting”, activities which act on more than one risk factor,” underlines Sylvie Belleville.
Ultimately, this meeting will have tangible repercussions on the residents of Côte-des-Neiges. Attentive to their requests, the community partners plan to design new programming or modify the existing one to better reflect the realities of the members interviewed.
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