Canadian Leadership in Ageing Awards

2023 Canadian Leadership in Ageing Award Recipients

The NIA and RTOERO are proud to announce the winners of the 2023 Canadian Leadership in Ageing Awards.

The prize for an undergraduate student ($1,000) was awarded to Anica Shafiq, a student at University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan School of Pharmacy. During Anica's time volunteering at a pharmacy, she took the initiative to reduce medication errors and ensure the safety of older patients after observing several communication gaps negatively impacting the health of the patients. In addition, Anica spearheaded the creation of a volunteer-led companionship program at a hospital to reduce social isolation during the hospital stays of older patients.

“As a Pharmacy volunteer, I was responsible for assisting older adults in managing their medications, answering their questions, and ensuring the safe administration of prescription drugs. During my tenure, I recognized several inefficiencies and communication gaps that were adversely affecting the health outcomes of older patients. I took the initiative to work closely with the pharmacy team and advocate for the implementation of improved medication reconciliation procedures. Through my efforts, we successfully streamlined the process, reducing medication errors and ensuring the safety of older patients. This experience instilled in me the importance of proactive policy development to enhance the quality of care older adults receive,” said Anica.

The prize for a graduate student ($1,000) was awarded to Karen Lok Yi Wong, a Ph.D. candidate at University of British Columbia. Karen is a researcher and practicing social worker. She successfully lobbied for TELUS to extend its Internet for Good program to low-income older adults, as internet access has become increasingly important to improving access to information, services and resources to live healthily and independently in the community. She also helped reform policies in Greater Vancouver long-term care homes to overcome loneliness and provided workshops for over 100 health and social services providers on the systemic barriers older immigrants and refugees face when accessing health and social care services.

“Through my practices as a social worker, I have encountered many older immigrants and refugees and their families experiencing challenges accessing healthcare and social services that meet their culture, language, and healthcare needs. Over the years, I began to think about the existence of embedded oppressions, including ageism, racism, and other oppressions, such as ableism, and their intersections in the broader healthcare and social service systems. Those who are both older adults and immigrants or refugees can easily fall through the cracks.

To advocate for systemic changes, I began by educating healthcare and social service providers to see the systemic gaps and oppressions. I provided workshops to educate more than 100 people who were either healthcare providers and leaders or healthcare and social service providers in training in the local universities and colleges. I also published a peer-reviewed journal article on the intersecting systemic oppressions older immigrants and refugees are facing, which is widely circulated in the health authority and reaches national and international readership.

I also collaborated with older immigrants and refugees with dementia or mental health issues and their family caregivers. I raised their awareness of the intersecting oppressions, provided them with education and training on advocacy knowledge and skills, and helped them build their cases when advocating for themselves in the healthcare and social service systems,” said Karen.