University of Ottawa Launches Health Equity for the Aged Lab

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By Bernard Rizk

Media Relations Officer, External Relations, University Of Ottawa

Elderly man with two young people
The University of Ottawa is celebrating the launch of its new Health Equity for the Aged Lab (HEAL). This initiative aims to improve the health and well-being of seniors from linguistic and cultural minority communities.

“By putting seniors from minority communities at the heart of its mission, the lab will promote equity, diversity and inclusion in access to long-term care (LTC), and also the right to live in dignity and in good health following a well-deserved retirement. This initiative is in keeping with the University of Ottawa’s first Interdisciplinary Centre for Black Health and will foster close ties with the Centre,” explained the director of HEAL, Idrissa Beogo, who is also an assistant professor at the School of Nursing at uOttawa’s Faculty of Health Sciences.

HEAL aims to bridge the disparities in health and well-being between the poorest and the richest seniors. The initiative will focus on health equity by ensuring that actions are tailored to the specific needs of seniors from the most vulnerable groups, including those from poor, Indigenous, LGBTQ+ , and minority communities.
 

Professor Idrissa Beogo
FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCES

“By putting seniors from minority communities at the heart of its mission, the lab will promote equity, diversity and inclusion in access to long-term care (LTC), and also the right to live in dignity...”

Idrissa Beogo

— Assistant Professor at UO's School of Nursing & HEAL Director

“HEAL is the only research centre of its kind in Canada; it is wholly dedicated to equitable long-term care in light of an aging, multicultural Canadian population. The lab will serve to maximize the development of best practices for long-term care that is tailored to ethnicity for Canadian seniors from minority groups,” Professor Beogo stated.

The lab’s scientific objectives are to generate knowledge through research into home- and facility-based ethnospecific LTC in order to better equip decision makers, workers and clients; to ensure the ongoing development of cutting-edge expertise in challenges related to the provision of, and access to, ethnospecific LTC; and to promote student competition and education in the area of ethnospecific LTC.

The Interdisciplinary Centre for Black Health and the Faculty of Health Sciences have joined forces to create and implement this initiative aimed at improving the health of seniors in the community.

This lab aims to deliver innovative measures that eliminate inequalities in health care delivery so that seniors can live healthy and active lives.
 

HEAL LOGO
HEAL Logo

WHAT: Launch of the Health Equity for the Aged Lab (HEAL)

WHEN: Friday, May 5, 2023, from noon to 2 p.m.

WHERE: FSS 1007, 120 University Private – Social Sciences Building, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada  K1N 6N5, University of Ottawa Main Campus.

Tickets for the HEAL launch on Friday, May 5, 2023, at noon | Eventbrite