Our vision: Working together with older adults with multiple chronic conditions and their family caregivers to promote optimal aging at home.

In 2013, Drs. Maureen Markle-Reid, Jenny Ploeg and their research team were awarded a combined $5.8 million to fund the new Aging, Community and Health Research Unit (ACHRU). The program received $2.5 million over five years from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Community-Based Primary Health Care Signature Initiative and $3.3 million over three years from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Health System Research Fund Program Award. The ACHRU has also received research funding from Max Bell Foundation, Ontario SPOR Support Unit (OSSU), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Catalyst Fund, Canadian Institutes of Health Research Pan-Canadian SPOR Network in Primary and Integrated Health Care Innovations (PIHCI), Labarge Optimal Aging Initiative, Labarge Foundation, McMaster Institute for Research on Aging (MIRA), and Diabetes Action Canada.

This funding allows them to promote optimal aging at home for older adults with multiple chronic conditions (MCC) and to support their family caregivers, by designing and evaluating new and innovative community-based health care interventions to improve access to health care, quality of life, and health outcomes in this population, while reducing costs.

The research program is made up of 12 interrelated studies to be conducted in Ontario and Alberta, in collaboration with a number of community partners and collaborators, and in partnership with a team of researchers from McMaster University, the University of Alberta, the University of Toronto, the University of Calgary, Mount Saint Vincent University, the University of Saskatchewan, the University of Waterloo, Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology, St. Joseph’s Health Care London, and Women’s College Hospital. The studies will focus on the prevention and management of multiple chronic conditions. Specifically, the studies will target seniors with MCC who have dementia, Type 2 diabetes and/or stroke.