Welcome to a special issue of the albertapatients newsletter. As we promised in our welcome newsletter, we are bringing you some interesting information about growing older in Alberta.

Why that topic particularly? We wanted to launch albertapatients.ca with a subject that would be relevant to many Albertans. Talking about seniors’ care and the experience of getting older seemed to fit that bill.

Please read on to see what we learned in some research conducted specially for the launch of albertapatients.ca. As always, we will want to hear from you about what you read and think.

In March, the AMA conducted a survey of 2,000 Albertans. We explored many questions about issues of getting older and things like looking ahead to retirement and how we are treated as we age.

We don’t have room to share all our results here today, but here are some results that we thought were particularly thought-provoking.  Please see Did You Know, below. If you’d like to comment, use the link provided under Closing Comments.

We also conducted our first sweepstakes draw in early July. (As you may already know, we hold monthly sweepstakes draws for 5 prizes of $200. All albertapatients members are automatically entered into each monthly draw, and every time you complete a survey, your member ID number gets an extra entry – an extra chance to win!)

Our June winners are:

Priscilla F. Don B. Jennifer B. Barbara F. Alice K.

Calgary Brooks Fort McMurray Lethbridge Edmonton

Here’s what the AMA found in the special albertapatients.ca survey on health care and aging in Alberta:

Albertans are not too worried that they’ll be treated differently when they are seniors than younger Albertans would be.
We asked if seniors are treated better, worse or about the same as everyone else.

They’re a little bit worried about getting older.
The top three things on people’s minds: Staying healthy/health issues and concerns; Having enough money/affording things; Finding/access to proper care/doctors/government support.

They don’t feel informed about what is available to support seniors in the health care system.
More than half of Albertans who participated in our survey told us they feel uninformed.
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We hope you found our research interesting. If you would like to make some comments or suggest an area for further research, Let Us Know.

In our next newsletter, we’ll report on what albertapatients members have been discussing and the issues that have been raised so far.

Thank you for being a member of the community!

Do you have a question you'd like us to ask in a survey or a topic you'd like us to discuss?
​Please share it with us!