Aging at home, instructions for use

Last June, 300 researchers gathered at the Université de Montréal to discuss aging. The Network for International Studies on Age, Citizenship and Socio-Economic Integration, the event’s sponsoring organization, brought together about fifteen of these researchers from several countries to show them first-hand a number of promising initiatives for seniors in the Montreal region. The Press got on the bus.

The benches of Rosemont

The Rosemont bench saga began in 2016, during a forum on seniors organized by four Montreal boroughs. Several recommendations were made, some aimed at facilitating the mobility of seniors. A very simple idea emerged: Install benches so that seniors could rest while walking or doing their shopping.

Nicole Laliberté, a former social worker, and Pauline Turmel, a former nurse, already members of the Table de concertation Vivre et âger à Rosemont, took the idea head on. They formed the aptly named “bench committee” and combed the borough to take inventory of said benches. Result: “There weren’t many!” summarizes M^me Turmel. The two women identify strategic locations where benches should be installed. Then they go to the district council. “We told them: ‘We want benches. With armrests. So that you can get up easily.’” In 2019, they made a specific request: they asked for 55 benches.

After sometimes interminable procedures, the two women obtained their 55 benches in 2020. Last year, they won 20 more benches. And this summer, 60 more will be installed on rue Beaubien. Total: 135 benches. In the borough, the women are now known as “the bench ladies.”

The intergenerational library

We are in the Brossard library, “the perfect example of what every municipality should do,” as the mayor of the municipality, Doreen Assad, rightly sums up. The municipal building is indeed much more than a library. It is a multigenerational hub that encourages exchanges between young people and seniors in Brossard.

“I often come across grandparents with their grandchildren here,” says Suzanne Payette, the library director, as she leads visitors into the Bouvry space, the impressive collection of butterflies and insects bequeathed by Georges Bouvry, a citizen friend of Georges Brossard, founder of the Montreal Insectarium.

There is also the toddler area, with its “pacifier tree” where toddlers can leave their pacifier in a ball in exchange for a book, its stroller parking and its large smart table where you can play games, but also take part in quizzes. All these facilities make grandparents and their grandchildren happy.

Seniors also have their own separate area in the library, where computers with built-in zooms and oversized letter keyboards are available for those with vision problems. A range of brochures on different types of health problems that affect seniors is also available free of charge here. Large, comfortable armchairs are also available for seniors.

And if by chance the elderly citizens are more inclined to tinker, they can also visit the FabLab, where various machines (such as 3D printers) are at their disposal. “A lot of our customers are seniors, who are really interested in what we do here!” underlines Éric Vallières, head of technology at the library.

Singing…and preventing abuse

Every week, the Troubadours de Montrose choir visits a private seniors’ residence or a CHSLD in the Rosemont district of Montreal. The choir sings classics by Luis Mariano, Alys Robi and Michel Louvain, to the delight of the seniors, who can follow the lyrics on a projection at the front. A host walks through the audience with a microphone, to draw attention to one voice or another.

“We are a pleasure choir. We want people to sing with us,” exclaims Diane Surprenant, choir director and facilitator at one of the service points of Carrefour Montrose, a community organization in the Rosemont district that aims to improve the quality of life of seniors.

The choir project started in 2019… but then the pandemic happened. “We dreamed about it for two years!” says M^me Surprising. In 2022, the project really got off the ground. “The goal is to break the isolation of people who live in RPAs and CHSLDs.” These very elderly clients, aged 80 or 90, quite vulnerable, did not go to the Carrefour Montrose activities. “So we decided to go visit them at home!” says M^me Surprising.

A community worker systematically joins the Troubadours of Montrose visits. Their role is to detect potential situations of abuse. “Their function is to reach out to isolated people, to create a bond with the elder. And at that point, the elderly person can start talking, and then we can guide them,” emphasizes Habiba Ediani, co-director of the organization.

From toddlers to seniors, in the same place

For years, the Paul-Bruchési school had been calling for the closure of rue de Lanaudière to compensate for the extremely small size of its schoolyard. A year ago, its wish was granted. And the beneficiaries were not only the schoolchildren, but also the seniors, who live nearby in a social housing project.

“It has become a civic hub, a place for intergenerational meetings. It creates a place conducive to meetings,” explains Julien Deschênes, from the office of the mayor of the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough, Luc Rabouin.

A community organization, la maison d’Aurore, offers support programs to schoolchildren and also to seniors, including homework help from seniors who live in the HLM.

The school organizes activities, such as a festive sugar shack, where seniors come to lend a hand in the service. Next year, the school plans to start cooking classes for children, where seniors would be invited. A daycare center will soon open in the area, adding a new age group to this beautiful intergenerational mix, which “was not at all on the radar” at the start of the project, admits Mr. Deschênes.

“Digital inclusion” for seniors

Let’s go back to 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have never been so dependent on technology: making an appointment on Clic-Santé for a vaccine, downloading your vaccination passport, organizing meetings by videoconference… Now, imagine yourself as a senior, helpless in the face of these technological requirements.

It was by realizing the extent of the demand for “digital inclusion” that Carrefour Montrose began to organize, at that time, workshops with a computer technician and groups of seniors. “We had to facilitate access to computers to prevent a certain digital divide. There was a real need,” emphasizes Habiba Ediani, co-director of the organization.

Weekly sessions were therefore organized, with 15 or 20 seniors at a time. In addition to these weekly training sessions, which are focused directly on the needs expressed by seniors, the computer technician can also visit their homes to resolve various digital problems.

Thanks to a federal government program, it was also possible to acquire tablets, which seniors can “borrow,” like a book from the library, for their personal use. “This purchase was necessary, since the majority of seniors did not have a tablet or smartphone, and some did not have internet,” says M.^me Ediani.