Baycrest

2008/09 Highlights of the Year " Sometimes you are the neediest person in the room and sometimes you are the one offering the support." Support caring for the caregivers Dementia is a family affair and adult children who care for parents suffering from the condition need a great deal of support. Baycrest's Caring for Your Loved One is a free six-week program that brings caregivers together to share experiences and coping strategies. If they wish, participants can continue on in an alumni group. One participant, Patti, says the program allows her to share a laugh – or a cry. "Sometimes you are the neediest person in the room and sometimes you are the one offering the support." Give Volunteering keeps you healthy They've been dubbed the "Silver Tsunami." As baby boomers edge closer to their retirement years, they represent the largest, healthiest and most educated pool of potential volunteer talent the volunteer sector has ever seen. The challenge for volunteer recruiters will be to attract and retain this target group whose members will want opportunities that better reflect their values, experience and skills, and also keep them physically and mentally healthy.   BRAVO (Baycrest Research About Volunteering Among Older Adults) is a new pilot study, funded in part by the federal government, which aims to provide more evidence that volunteering is an effective prescription for healthy aging. Previous research has mostly focused on how volunteers feel about what they do; this study will investigate the health benefits. It's a message volunteer recruiters say could be very persuasive for harnessing the large wave of boomers who will soon have more time to give back to their communities. 16 Baycrest 2008/09 Annual Report

• Cover