ILCSA participates in the ILC Global Alliance 2019 Biennial Meetings

Co-director Sebastiana Kalula and new Associate Rayne Stroebel represented ILCSA in the 2019 ILC GA Biennial Meetings, held in Sydney, Australia from 3 to 5 November.

The meetings were chaired by ILC GA Co-President Mary Ann Tsao (ILC Singapore). Alex Kalache (ILC Brazil), not in attendance, stepped down as a Co-President with effect from the meetings. The meetings were convened by ILC Australia President Julie Byles and her team; ILC Australia is based at the University of Newcastle.

ILC GA members at the Sydney meetings	Rayne Stroebel, Karla (ILC Brazil) and Sebastiana Kalula at the 2019 meetings in Sydney

The business meetings were preceded by a workshop of the ILC Global Alliance on an “International Framework for Comparison of Long Term Care for Older People”. The aim of the research project is to develop an international framework for describing and classifying Long Term Care (LTC) systems in different countries according to a country’s ability to meet the needs of older people. A further aim is to use the framework to identify examples of best practice and innovation in LTC systems, and to identify potential to transfer specific elements of LTC across different settings. The research is designed to strengthen understanding of how LTC is delivered across the world, and to enhance the ability to learn from each other and to adopt best practice examples to improve the wellbeing of people in later life.

The 2019 ILC GA Robert Butler Memorial Lecture was given by Professor Tony Broe, Senior Principal Research Fellow, NeuRa, Conjoint Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of New South Wales, on “Population Ageing and Indigenous Australians: Political, Social and Biological Determinants of Healthy Ageing.”

Social events included two convivial dinners which afforded delegates an opportunity to network, and to enjoy excellent Australian cuisine and wines.

The ILC GA meetings were held back to back with the annual conference of the Australian Association of Gerontology (AAG). The theme of the conference was “Coming of Age Together: New Ways of Knowing and Acting.”

ILCSA Associate Rayne Stroebel gave an oral presentation in the conference, entitled “Dementia: perhaps a Western, biomedical social construct of colonization?”