Resilience in Older Adults
How might we foster the adoption, use, and sustainability of the Brain Story science across sectors that influence older adult well-being?
The Resilience in Older Adults trio combined relational learning and scientific evidence in the pursuit of sharing learnings with older adults, including those experiencing age-related challenges. They approached their Catamount journey with humility, empathy, and respect, and worked to develop something that balances the need to sustain this work over time.
Portfolio of Learning
Reflection - Rahkshi
The Catamount Fellowship allowed me to explore a topic I would not have otherwise approached in a non academic setting. This experience became a safe environment to explore practical knowledge and allowed me to express my curiosity in a way that felt both guided and emboldening. In today's fast paced world, learning about the experiences of older adults as they navigate ever growing complexity helped me understand that big problems often require simple solutions grounded in reality and lived experience. As students, we are often driven by the direction of what comes next. This fellowship allowed me to slow down and recognize my current presence in the community around me, even when my experiences did not align with others.
It helped me realise that systems are not structurally rigid with one clear fix, rather they are just as alive, complex, and diverse as the people that exist within them. As such, they require sensitivity, humility, and care when they are being examined or challenged. Most of all, I learned that systems are dynamic and that a single action within them can change the outcome on a macro level. I discerned that sometimes being a changemaker is not merely the ability to charge forward, and that, sometimes making a positive difference is as simple as taking the time to admire the interconnectedness of the human experience and reflecting on our own position within it.
Our topic helped me understand that at its core, experience is shaped by structural elements, whether those include the physical architecture of our brains, or the positive and negative social supports in our environment. What seems abstract in nature, can be broken down into components that dictate the ebb and flow of lived experience. Therefore, it becomes more important than not that we take into account the hidden elements of a system such as the indirect physical effects of adversity which ultimately influence individual outcomes, resilience and overall stability.
