Funder: Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada’s Innovation Enhancement fund.
Project Lead: Jennifer Mah, Dean, Faculty of Health & Community Studies
As the population ages, experiences multiple care conditions, and want to live independently longer, seniors’ care is becoming more complex. Governments and caregiving organizations alike are recognizing that sector change is needed, even more so now as continuing care facilities grapple with COVID outbreaks and seniors living at home experience intense social isolation due to lock-downs. Integrating innovative technology into seniors' care has long been a proposed solution to many of these issues. In this new initiative, NorQuest College, in partnership with Technology North Corporate, Maple Corporation, Caregivers Alberta, Lifestyle Options Retirement Communities, and the Institute for Continuing Care Education and Research network, is creating a Rapid Response Research for Innovations in Seniors' Care applied research program. Starting with 3 initial projects developed with partners and tested in situ and expanding from there, the program will help care giving organizations address their growing research needs, support technology companies' expansion into the senior's care market, and provide unique applied research and commercialization experiences for NorQuest students. By leveraging NorQuest College research and evaluation expertise along the technological innovations developed by Technology North Corp. and Maple Corp., this program will support improved quality of life for seniors in Alberta, facilitate change within the seniors' care sector towards long-term sustainability, and simultaneously support local economic recovery and growth.