The workshop, hosted by Mood Disorders Society of Canada, is aimed at developing a national policy on stigmatization.

“What’s important are how we answer the questions about how we can work on these issues,” says MacCourt. “I would like to see my work dovetail with and be relevant to these people. We can’t spin our wheels – we have to come up with a plan and identify what the big issues are.”

MacCourt says that in Canada, an all-too-common problem is the exclusion and isolation of seniors from full participation in their home communities.

“We’re not inclusive – [seniors are] devalued,” says MacCourt, currently working on a federal research project entitled “Senior’s Mental Health Policy Lens.”

“We’re lacking in providing the necessary social resources.”

Changing family structures and the vast geographic distances are also factors which lead to the isolation of seniors. MacCourt, providing a personal example, says that if she needed to support her mother, who lives in Manitoba, applying her Manitoba-based provincial supports to BC would be a near impossibility. Nationally, she says, the system should be set up to support seniors.

This dearth of supports in part drives much of MacCourt’s recent research work, which includes work with the Seniors Psychosocial Interest Group. MacCourt helped to construct the “Seniors-to-Seniors” brochure, interviewing seniors across Canada on issues related to aging, retirement, health, and community involvement.

The purpose of research, as well as multi-disciplinary workshops involving researchers in different fields, says MacCourt, is to generate policies that “make a difference.”