“We’re ignoring so many parts about aging if we just think of it as a health issue,” said Laura Funk, a professor in the U of M’s department of sociology and criminology whose work explores the social aspects of aging within the context of people’s lives.

Her research teases out the dominant assumptions of aging to understand what truths are being obscured, invalidated and rendered invisible.

Social and critical gerontology “often calls us to question the dominant narrative around aging, aging well [and viewing] dementia as the end of the world,” she said.

Consistent with the notions of critical theory, a social perspective focused on critiquing and changing society, Funk shared that “there is always value in encouraging different ways of thinking and challenging some of the implications of dominant assumptions.”

For example, contrary to what society often asserts, people living with dementia can still have purposeful, important and fulfilling lives, even if it diverges from the type of life others may place value in.

In one of Funk’s current case studies, she explores the experiences of participants with low income emphasizing the impact of wealth on how older adults experience aging.

“There’s a lot of for-profit, tremendously expensive assisted living where you can pay thousands of extra dollars, but if you can’t afford that, you’re very limited,” Funk said. “Usually, you might get into a building that has affordable rent, and maybe you get some meals and then everything else is up to you.”

Another study focuses on the housing needs and experiences of urban dwelling older Indigenous adults in Winnipeg. The intersectionality of Indigenous identity experienced by these older adults and the systemic barriers that accompany it are often ignored, even as it lands older adults in unsafe living accommodations. Funk also noted the differences in attitudes and accommodation provision towards people with disabilities across the spectrum of age.

“If someone has a lifelong disability, human rights would dictate [that] this person has to be supported with that disability in this place and accommodated within that space,” she said. “But if you develop disabilities because of aging, it’s an entirely different kind of mindset that people seem to have.”

This pattern raises questions about how non-profit housing providers, health authorities and community-based social services can intersect to support older adults with low income. Whether or not these organizations have the appropriate resources to fill these gaps and the dynamics that form when they attempt to, are the source of further questions.

Taking these narratives a step further, Funk explores ways of shifting current structures and systems of care so that they do “not perpetuate inequities associated with aging or within dementia or care work.”

She highlighted the need for society to move away from institutional models and prioritize systems that stem from the perspective of caregivers and older adults.

Funk also explores the experience of caregivers who are ambivalent and reluctant to provide care.

“Rather than judging them for feeling ambivalent about it or reluctant, it’s like you can totally understand once you just see their life and how it’s gone, how things came to be this way,” she said. “It’s great if people can [provide care] and if they’re supported, but it can be a really difficult experience.”

In addition to revisiting societal institutions and policies, she highlighted the importance of addressing our own fears of aging and dementia. It has become important to have a shift in narrative, especially as Canada’s population ages. For example, the idea that Canada’s growing elderly population is a problem is merely a subjective narrative that overlooks the potential benefits and contributions of older adults.

“[We need] that huge cultural shift to learn from other cultures that don’t sort of pathologize aging and dementia to the same extent that we tend to,” Funk said.

“The reason we have population aging is not just because of low fertility but because of high life expectancy, which is a good thing.”