At the Conconi Family Foundation, we continue to pursue one central question:
How can we shift to a new model of care that supports people to age in community with dignity, autonomy, kindness and stability we’d want for ourselves?
That means we are investing our philanthropic funds in revitalizing public long-term care, supporting in-community aging initiatives, and building out the invisible infrastructure needed to develop mechanisms for meaningful change.
We have deepened our partnerships with Providence Living and Providence Health Care. These two sister organizations have made a significant commitment to expanding their offerings and aligning them more closely with the needs of older adults.
Going beyond the brick and mortar…
Providence Living operates publicly funded long-term care facilities in 4 out of 5 health authority regions in the Province. It recently opened first in Canada’s publicly funded long-term care village, which has seen a shift from task-oriented to more effective social-relational care. The intention is to scale this model across their other homes.
Staff, Residents, and Friends at Providence Living at The Views
Providence Health Care has announced its commitment to older adults by embedding a Centre for Health Aging at the new St. Paul’s Hospital. In this hybrid age, we are keen to explore how this new capacity can be leveraged to support older adults beyond the walls of the hospital.
We recently established the Conconi Family Foundation Distinguished Scholar in Seniors Care at UBC. Dr. Amy Salmon has been named the inaugural scholar; she currently leads a Seniors Research Group at the Center for Advancing Health Outcomes. This new function is critical to developing substantive research programs [over the next decade] dedicated to positively changing how we care for seniors. Dr. Salmon and her team have a demonstrated commitment to creating and sharing evidence in ways that knowledge users can put it into action in their own environments and practice.
Dr. Amy Salmon - Conconi Family Foundation Distinguished Scholar in Seniors Care at UBC
Speaking of knowledge, we have repeatedly heard that there are gaps in information about areas of healthcare that are particularly troubling for older adults as they can advance or impede quality of life. One area of concern is the use of the Mental Health Act in long-term care. Another concern is the matter of availability and access to palliative care across the Province. As a result, we have partnered with Health Justice (Mental Heath Act in LTC) and Pallium Canada (Palliative Atlas BC) to help address those critical gaps in information. We hope that data and insights from these endeavours will be helpful to the end-knowledge users. Their value is in lived expertise and facts at the forefront of service delivery.
…And sometimes, it’s the concrete infrastructure that we need to launch
The Conconi Family Foundation has worked with a team at UBC School of Biomedical Engineering to launch a Biodevice Foundry. This purpose-built facility will bring new capacity to address common biomedical and clinical needs. The ultimate goal of the Biodevice Foundry is to improve the health of Canadians by developing new disease-specific diagnostics, therapeutics, and monitoring devices. This translation-centric vision, which emphasizes clinical application, is what got us excited about this partnership.
Animation of BioDevice Foundry
Finally, we are only in year 4 of a decade-long commitment to reshaping what Aging Well in BC could look like. Stay tuned for more information. If you don’t want to wait another year for the next update, follow us on your social media platform of choice:
X: @ConconiFndn
Instagram: @Conconifamilyfoundation
LinkedIn: Conconi-Family-Foundation
Facebook: Conconi Family Foundation
Until next year,
Sanja
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