News Release

1999-50
March 29, 1999

International Year of Older Persons project focuses on new information technologies

Quebec City - The Honourable Gilbert Normand, Secretary of State (Agriculture and Agri-Food) (Fisheries and Oceans) and M.P. for Bellechasse-Etchemins-Montmagny-L'Islet, on behalf of Health Minister Allan Rock, today announced funding for a project aimed at enabling seniors to start learning about new technologies with the help of young people.

Health Canada will provide $9,500, through the Population Health Fund, to the project, Promotion de l'utilisation chez les personnes âgées de la nouvelle technologie de l'informatique et de l'Internet, of the Holland Centre.

Under this project, seniors will be given an introduction to new information technologies, including the Internet, through the creation of intergenerational relationships among seniors and adolescents, with the adolescent serving as a guide for the senior. This initiative will help bring the generations closer together by providing young people and seniors with an opportunity to participate in a common project.

The Holland Centre's partners for this project will be the Central Quebec School Board which provides the Anglophone population in the area with educational services, and the Centre hospitalier de soins de longue durée (CHSLD) Saint-Brigid's Home, a hospital centre for long-term care for the Anglophone population of the area. Quebec High School will participate in the recruitment and training of the adolescents involved and will make its computer facilities available for the project. Saint Brigid's Home will provide rooms and will participate in recruitment of seniors to participate in the project.

This project is one of the 17 initiatives that Health Canada has supported in Quebec to mark the International Year of Older Persons. It was submitted to the Bureau québécois de l'Année internationale des personnes âgées (BQAIPA, Quebec bureau for IYOP) within the framework of a joint federal/provincial invitation for projects led by the federal government last fall.

Health Canada has adopted a population health approach to further the fulfilment of its mandate to maintain and improve the health of Canadians. Through this approach, it recognizes that many factors other than the health care system have a strong impact on health, including nutrition, physical activity and level of education. This approach focuses on prevention and encourages all Canadians, and particularly at-risk groups, to take steps required to promote good health.

The objective of the Population Health Fund, which has an annual budget of $14 million, is to increase community capacity to improve action on the determinants of health, individually or in partnership with volunteer organizations, governments or the private sector. To achieve this objective, support is provided for projects aimed at facilitating intersectoral planning and co-ordinated action on the part of volunteers, care providers, governments and the private sector.

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