The summary below was developed from insights shared in a conversation with Dr. Mei Lan Fang. Her expertise was critical in the development of the Aging in a Changing Climate article.
Dr. Mei Lan Fang, Assistant Professor, Urban Studies and Gerontology, Simon Fraser University
Co-Lead of the COALESCE (Championing Older Adults for Leadership in Environmental Sustainability and Climate Empowerment) Research Project
I did my studies at Simon Fraser University in health sciences and public health, especially looking at the social determinants of health. Then I got roped into aging, which was great. It was an opportunity that led on to many great things, including focusing on the environment. Whether you live in urban, suburban or rural settings, what is it about the environment that can help you to age better, especially given that older people want to stay in their communities for as long as possible?
One of the pressing topic areas in aging is around climate change, but more specifically within BC, because we're experiencing so many wildfires and we have a lot of older people living out in the interior that are in the centerfold of all these wildfires. Especially given the 2021 heat dome— the majority of people who died from that situation were older people. But it's interesting because when I talk to older people about the idea of climate change, they have different ideas, thoughts and perspectives. For a lot of older people, they're living with chronic health conditions, so climate change isn’t on the forefront. When you ask, what are the key priorities?, they'll talk about caregiving and housing 90 to 100% of the time. Take my dad for example. My dad was very regimented. He did all his recycling. He was very like, this is what we need to do. But when he started getting older and he was dealing with different health issues, this just fell off the radar. So the key questions from the start was, why should older people care about climate change and how do we work with them to become more knowledgeable and be able to take control of their home environments?
The COALESCE research project focuses on working with older people throughout the whole research process while using a realistic approach, so we’re thinking about what works for whom and in what contexts. At the very start, I developed partnerships across various senior centers in Greater Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. They have various different programs - some of the senior centers already have a climate action interest group and others have lifelong learning groups. So from those two specific groups, we were able to recruit older people who were interested in climate change and gaining research skills. Together, we came up with the research question: How does climate change impact the everyday lives of older people?
In the first phase of the project, we trained older adults how to screen and search for literature and paired them up with students, so there was that intergenerational relationship. Once we found articles that made sense in relation to the research question, we would read through them, come up with key themes and have discussions around what's useful in the BC setting. Then, we conducted a series of life course interviews. We asked older adults things like, What are your thoughts around climate change? What do you know about it? Is this something that was talked about when you were growing up? They brought up very interesting topics. They talked about the ice age, acid rain, the ozone layer. Then we wanted to work with people in the industry who could really make some practical changes. We worked with RDH Building Science, a group of engineers that work in the community and really look at the quality of new builds. We want to ask questions like, how can we make these buildings better to keep the heat in during winter and to help keep people cool in the summer? But then also taking into account that older peoples’ bodies function differently. For a lot of older people that I speak to, their temperature regulation is not the same as it was before. So when it gets really hot, sometimes you don't realize it's so hot and it's actually impacting breathing. So how can we make buildings if we're designing them for older people? RDH Building Science provided us with these high-quality home sensors that monitors air quality, humidity, temperature, and particulates that we can install in older adults’ homes. So older adults are learning about how these sensors work, what types of data are coming in, and what to do if the colors change. The sensor has a little light that changes color anywhere from red, which is really bad, to orange, then green, and to blue, which is perfect. And it takes all of these measures and puts it into an index, so you can sync it to your phone and you could see where it’s high or low. One of the older participants burnt some toast one time. She's like, oh gosh, it's turned orange. I better sort this out and open the window. So it's helping older people make practical changes in and around their homes. Technology can be a barrier for some older people, but at the same time they want to learn. It’s about having the proper resources and time to do that training and troubleshooting.
We're also working with some folks at University of British Colombia called the Cool Hood Champs, which champions people to take control of their immediate environment. It's a training program where you have researchers from urban forestry come in and teach you about where the cooling spots are in and around your community. There's this squirrel test. It's interesting. The idea is, if you can see a squirrel jumping from tree to tree, then you have enough trees. But if you're not seeing any squirrels being able to jump to different trees, then you probably need more trees.
The COALESCE project is a pilot study, so we have about 20 older adult participants. For the next phase, we're going to really expand that work with industries to get more sensors to roll this out across BC and then maybe in other provinces, which would be really cool because then you have this abundance of big data that housing organizations can use to make higher-quality buildings. In BC, there's a lot of redevelopment happening everywhere, and they're also looking for opportunities to retrofit cause sometimes it's not necessary to knock down buildings.
Collaborating with older adults has brought a lot more humility to how I work. I learned how interested they are about different issues and how carefree they can be; things don’t really bother them as much and they’re very funny and constantly laugh about silly things. I started off in public health and there was a huge focus on early childhood development. I didn't even realize we had a department of gerontology. But now, I wouldn't change anything. I would stick with working with older people because it's so fun and rewarding. Maybe it’s self-preservation in some way - we need to really change things because at a certain point, we're eventually going to need these services and programs. But it's also about keeping well. We always talk about health promotion like staying physically active, drinking lots of water. But when you’re older it's like, oh, I really need to stay physically active. If you stop using your body, then it's not going to function as well later on. So it’s prepping yourself with that kind of mindset. But also just thinking about pressing issues like having supportive environments as you age. How do we ensure that people can age well all the way up till the end of life? We need more people with different skills to try and problem solve. That's what we're constantly doing. I don't think a problem's ever going to be solved completely. We also need to create opportunities for the next generation, so focusing on that paying it forward piece. The mentorship piece is key, and I think in every research project that I ask money for, I try to see where the job opportunities are for people. If we can create more jobs through the grants that we get where there's actual training and development, then that's way more capacity building for helping people to age well and progressing this research.
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