As populations age and dementia prevalence rises, communities face mounting pressure to deliver equitable, person-centered supports that enable older adults to thrive where they live. This symposium reflects on cutting-edge research and education projects that explored the intersections of urban planning, rural health, cross-sector collaboration and university-community engagement with perspectives from across the Atlantic to foster dialogue and innovation.

 

Each project foregrounds the importance of engaging older adults and diverse interest holders—ranging from policymakers and healthcare professionals to urban planners and community leaders—in co-designing place-based systems that promote integrated care, wellness, autonomy, and social inclusion. From cities in British Columbia to community-based interventions in rural America, these papers aimed to harness the power of integrated, locally grounded solutions that align with the broader goals of health equity and adaptive systems change.

 

As part of a special issue in Planning Practice and Research, this symposium aims to identify commonalities and advance our understanding around the challenges of applying solutions across contexts, especially from a decolonial and/or emancipatory perspective grounded in planning practice and theories. Each presentation will consider their local contexts and draw out planning implications for discussions.

 

Following the presentations, an invited local discussant will identify linkages across papers and invite further questions from participants. Discussions may focus on university-community-municipal engagements as a catalyst for change among other themes. Together, these discussions of community-engaged studies and provider education initiatives address critical gaps in current age- and dementia-friendly planning models by offering real-world strategies toward more inclusive, connected, and responsive communities.

 

“Building Bridges: A Theory of Change to Integrate Siloed Sectors in an Age-Friendly Ecosystem” shares a Northern California health system’s approach to bridging health, education, and community services through continuing professional development, offering a model for cross-sector implementation of Age-Friendly principles.

 

“Optimizing Rural Community Health through Interdisciplinary Detection and Care (ORCHID)” presents two community-based interventions led by faith-based educators to improve dementia detection and care in underserved rural settings, revealing strengths and limitations of interdisciplinary, upstream approaches.

 

“Evaluating a Knowledge Summit for Cross-sector Policy and Planning with Digital Stories on Aging in Place” engages policymakers and service providers in dialogue about aging across diverse settings and emphasizes the value of narrative in mobilizing cross-sector action.

 

“Social and Nature Prescribing towards Adaptive Citizen Planning Systems for Brain Health” explores digital social prescribing and community-driven planning to reduce isolation, support dementia care, and enable scalable, tech-supported integration across health and social systems.

BRIDGING:

Kerri Maya is the Director of Continuing Professional Development and Clinical Implementation for Sutter Health where she leads a system-level team that supports interprofessional clinicians in the integration of evidence-based best practices across the care continuum. Maya is also the system-level lead and Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) liaison for implementation of the Age-Friendly Health System framework which seeks to reduce iatrogenic harm and health inequities for older adults. As a long-term delirium champion, she is an active member in multiple leadership roles in the American Delirium Society, is a regular conference presenter on the topic, and co-author of the JAGS Editor’s Choice article Optimizing delirium care in the era of Age-Friendly Health System.

 

Maya’s background is as a critical care nurse, hospital supervisor, and educator. She received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Sonoma State University and a Master of Nursing Science and Healthcare Leadership from the University of California, Davis where she is currently completing her doctorate there in the same field of study. Additionally, she holds Graduate Academic Certificates as a Health Professions Educator, Family Caregiving Support, and as an Implementation Science Support Specialist as well as being ANCC board certified in Nursing Professional Development.

 

OPTIMIZING:

Dr. Candy Wilson is a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and a dedicated women’s health nurse practitioner with over 30 years of service. Throughout her distinguished military career, she secured over $22 million in federal research funding and authored 56 peer-reviewed publications. Her research has influenced U.S. Congress, the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and other federal leaders, contributing to significant policy changes. During Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, Dr. Wilson provided critical healthcare to women and children in remote and rural villages, reinforcing her commitment to global health. Today, she serves as a tenured Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship at the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University, where she continues to shape DoD research.

 

Dr. Wilson earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Western Kentucky University in 1992, a Master’s in Nursing from the University of Tennessee Knoxville in 2000, a Master’s in Health Science from Duke University in 2019, and a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Denver Health Sciences Center in 2006. Her research focuses on understanding the sex and gender differences in health and illness.

 

EVALUATING:

Dr. Wendy Hulko is a professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at Thompson Rivers University who conducts interdisciplinary research on aging, dementia, and health care with equity-denied groups, including Secwepemc Elders, racialized older adults, sexual and gender minorities, and rural residents. Having a background in long-term care nursing, hospital social work, and government policy, Wendy often works in partnership with health practitioners and decision-makers and uses creative and visual methods.

 

She holds a BAHon in Sociology and Spanish (Trent), Master of Social Work (U of T), and PhD in Sociology and Social Policy (Stirling) and is affiliated with UBC’s Centre for Research on Personhood in Dementia, UCSF’s Emancipatory Sciences Lab and the Critical Dementia Studies Network. Wendy has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and edited books and is co-editor of the 2019 UBC Press book Indigenous peoples and dementia: New understandings of memory loss and memory care and co-author of the 2020 Routledge Press book Gerontological social work in action: Anti-oppressive practice with older adults, their families, and communities, to be revised for 2026.

 

PRESCRIBING:

Dr. Daniel RY Gan is a community planner and environmental gerontologist with advanced training in structural equation modeling (SEM) and community-engaged research (CEnR). He studies environmental influences of mental health among diverse populations and cross-sectoral policies for prevention. Dr. Gan holds a joint PhD in Urbanism and Gerontology from the National University of Singapore, ranked top 20 in the world. He has published in leading journals such as Landscape & Urban Planning, Social Science & Medicine, Current Opinion in Psychiatry, and The Gerontologist.

 

Dr. Gan won the 2021 CIHR-IA and 2023 CIHR-IMHA research excellence prizes, and several best paper awards. He founded the CEnR interest group at the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), and has been invited to speak on place-based methods at the American Congress of Rehab Medicine, Canadian Association on Gerontology, Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging, and the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. He has presented his research in Ann Arbor, Chicago, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Indianapolis, London, Oxford, Savannah, Seattle, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto and Vancouver. Catch his CLSA presentation here: https://youtu.be/B5CsA4aTjm8

 

DISCUSSANT:

Dr. Jarmin Yeh, PhD, MPH, MSSW, is an Associate Professor in the Institute for Health & Aging, Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, in the School of Nursing at UCSF. They are a sociologist, gerontologist, and age-friendly cities and health researcher. Their work broadly investigates social justice issues that impact the quality of life of community-dwelling older adults, people living with dementia, and caregivers. They lead the CARING (Community Action Research in Gerontology) Lab, which encompasses a portfolio of community-engaged and interdisciplinary projects that aim to advance health equity in aging, and serve as a co-director of the UCSF Emancipatory Sciences Lab, founded by Dr. Carroll L. Estes. Jarmin is an affiliate faculty member with the UCSF Healthforce Center, UCSF Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, UCSF Bioethics, and teaches in the UCSF Master of Science in Healthcare Administration and Interprofessional Leadership (MS-HAIL) Program.

 

Prior to joining UCSF, Jarmin worked at The New York Academy of Medicine’s Social Work Leadership Institute, where they managed a national initiative funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation to bolster the social work workforce in aging. They serve on the board of directors for the Metta Fund, Community Living Campaign, California Council on Gerontology and Geriatrics, and Head Over Heels Athletic Arts. Jarmin currently lives in San Francisco, California. A retired gymnast and former student-athlete, they still perform the occasional cartwheel.