UVic Institute on Aging & Lifelong Health

06/02/2026

Coming soon to the Yakimovich Wellness Centre: Addressing Inequities in Dementia Care Through Community-Led Approaches: A Focus on BC’s Chinese Community (June 11, 1-3 p.m.)

Canadians living with dementia – and those who care for them – need more supports that truly enhance their quality of life. For individuals from ethno-racial communities in Canada, accessing these supports can be especially challenging due to systemic inequities, including racism, language barriers, and cultural stigma surrounding dementia. In this session, Dr. Mariko Sakamoto will share insights from an innovative, nationally led project focused on developing meaningful quality-of-life supports for people living with dementia and their care partners in underserved but equity-deserving communities across Canada, with a focus on Black, Chinese, and South Asian communities. Learn more and register: https://eldercarefoundation.org/event/quality-of-life-supports-for-the-chinese-community/

06/02/2026

National AccessAbility Week is here! From May 31 to June 6, join us in celebrating the individuals and organizations driving meaningful change for persons with disabilities.

As part of the week, our friends at CanAssist at the University of Victoria have organized a series of events taking place at their office:

Connected Generations | Tuesday, June 2 at 2 pm
A relaxed afternoon of tech support and conversation between UVic students and older adults in the community. Tea and cookies included!

Inclusive Employers Tour | Thursday, June 4 at 10 am
Connect with inclusive employers, explore CanAssist's innovative technology projects and enjoy a guided tour of their machine shop.

CanAssist Open House | Thursday, June 4 at 2 pm
Tour the CanAssist facilities, see demonstrations of assistive technology and connect with staff, UVic researchers and colleagues in the sector.

To learn more about the events and to RSVP, visit canassist.ca/week2026

National AccessAbility Week is a big time for CanAssist at the University of Victoria! Check out some of the events we're hosting at our office over the week.

06/01/2026

The deadline to submit an entry to our 2026 Brain Art Contest & Showcase is today at 4pm! Details in the post attached.

🎨 Call for Submissions: 2026 Brain Art Contest & Showcase "In Mind: Community & Culture"

Hosted by UVic’s Institute on Aging & Lifelong Health (IALH) and the University of Victoria, Faculty of Fine Arts.

How does community and culture shape our mental well-being across the lifespan? What stories of resilience, vulnerability, healing, ritual, care, and support can be told through art? We’re inviting creators of all ages and abilities to explore these questions through any art form — visual, written, performance, or digital.

📅 Entry Deadline EXTENDED: June 1st at 4pm

📍 Showcase & Awards Ceremony: June 8 - 12th, 10am–4pm at Audain Gallery, Visual Arts Bldg, UVic Campus

Participants enter by categories: Young Creators (12 years & under), Teen & Youth Visions (13–24 years), and Adult Reflections (25+ years).

🏆 Prizes: A $100 gift card will be awarded to each age category selected by a committee. In addition, a $100 gift card will be awarded to the People's Choice Award, voted on by the public in attendance at the showcase.

✅ Who Can Enter?
Everyone! Whether you’re a UVic student, faculty, staff, or community member — no artistic experience required.

📩 How to Submit:
Entry form required — find it here: uvic.ca/research/centres/aging/events/brainart/index.php

📌 Help us spread the word! Post our event in your school, workplace, or community.

Use and tag us to show us what you're working on!

Questions? Contact [email protected]

*This contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with Facebook.

05/30/2026

Meet Dr. Farah Mawani, IALH Research Fellow, Assistant Professor, School of Public Health & Social Policy, UVic Faculty of Health

"My community-led research is shaped by insight from my lived experience of migration and systemic racism, combined with years of experience conducting applied research in academic, policy, health system, and community environments. I focus on social inclusion interventions to redress systemic racism and discrimination as drivers of social and mental health inequities. My current research includes scaling a peer walking/rolling group program to promote social inclusion and mental health among immigrants and refugees and adapting a social inclusion intervention to prevent mental health issues among pregnant and parenting adolescent girls in Rwanda.

I’m passionate about this work because I know that social inclusion interventions designed by people with lived experience of exclusion can dismantle systemic racism and discrimination, promote mental health, and save lives."

Learn more about Dr. Mawani in the Faculty of Health’s Research Spotlight: https://www.uvic.ca/health/stories/health/research-spotlight-with-farah-mawani.php

05/29/2026

Meet Dr. Megan Ames, IALH Research Fellow, Associate Professor, UVic Psychology.

Dr. Ames and her lab study how physical and mental health are connected and influence one another during adolescence. They are especially interested in how everyday habits like physical activity, sleep, and screen time shape young people’s mental health and well-being. This research aims to better understand these connections so we can create more effective ways to support youth mental health.

Dr. Ames is passionate about working alongside young people to develop practical, meaningful solutions that improve their daily lives.

Learn more about The Ames Lab here: https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/ames/

05/29/2026

Meet Dr. Abu Saleh Mohammad Sowad, IALH Research Fellow, Postdoctoral Fellow, UVic - School of Nursing.

"My research examines how Latin American single migrant men in Canada negotiate masculinity, belonging, and mental well-being while working in temporary and often precarious labour conditions. It focuses on how migration, work, and social expectations shape their everyday lives, relationships, and sense of “home,” as well as how they cope, connect, and care for themselves and others across borders. It also highlights how belonging and mental health are deeply shaped by structural conditions and by everyday acts of resilience, care, and solidarity.

I am passionate about this work because migrant men are often treated as invisible in both policy and research, despite carrying heavy social and economic burdens. I want to challenge one-dimensional narratives and make space for their lived experiences to inform more just, inclusive, and humane approaches to migration and mental health."

Learn more about his contribution to the MenBelong Project here: https://menbelong.tilda.ws/sowad

05/28/2026

Meet Molly Stewart, IALH Student Affiliate, Master’s Student, UVic Computer Science.

"My research examines how wellness strategies such as savouring can be more effectively supported through digital technologies to promote mental health at work, with a focus on noticing and reflecting on positive experiences. Specifically, my research explores integrating reflection supports such as positive logging, and picture-based memory triggers into everyday work tools, such as calendars, to understand how such supports can boost positive emotions and encourage engagement with wellness practices. I prototyped a tool which augments work events in a calendar with whimsical images of positive experiences felt in those events so workers can notice and savour positive affective experiences at work, which may otherwise go unnoticed. My research will be published at CHIWORK'26, an HCI conference. This research was done with support from my co-authors Minghao Cai, Anthony Tang, Sam Liu, Chris Mosunic, and Sowmya Somanath.

I am passionate about how technology can better support mental health and well-being by integrating fun, whimsy, and creativity into digital tools. In increasingly competitive and productivity-focused work cultures, I believe it is important to create opportunities for people to appreciate positive experiences and find moments of joy in everyday life."

Learn more about Molly here: https://vixi.cs.uvic.ca/people/molly-stewart-2024-10-27/

05/28/2026

Reminder: only 4 days left to submit your work to 2026 Brain Art Contest & Showcase. We invite you to submit work in any form, including visual (paintings, sculptures, drawings), written (poetry, short stories), performance-based (theatre, dancing, singing), or digital (photography, video). In collaboration with the University of Victoria, Faculty of Fine Arts.

If you're looking for inspiration, check out this YouTube video of the entries from our Brain Art Contest 2023.

In May 2023, the UVic Institute on Aging and Lifelong Health’s Brai...