Regional Seniors' Workshop on Research (RSWR)
The Institute of Aging of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) held a National Seniors' Forum on Research in May 2003 to provide a voice to seniors and seniors' organizations on the receiving end of health care and social programs. At the end, there was general agreement on the need to hold similar regional workshops across the country. The series of Regional Seniors' Workshops on Research held across the country over the past two years concluded with the fifth workshop held in Montreal in April 2006. Through these five community consultations (in the Prairies, the Maritimes, British Columbia and Yukon, Ontario and Quebec), the Institute has hosted over 250 seniors, along with representatives of non-governmental agencies, practitioners and policy makers involved in providing services to seniors. These dialogues allowed participants to find out more about current research in aging and how they can become involved, as well as giving them the opportunity to identify their priorities for health research relevant to aging. We have already established that, while there were some definite regional differences, a few priorities were highly ranked - notably health services and research linked to the housing-care continuum. A consultation with Canadians living in other regions of the North is also planned. The next step will be to synthesize the results from the workshops and formalize an ongoing process for knowledge sharing and engagement of older stakeholders in research processes.
