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In this installment of Inspiring Action: The Impact of Research at MSVU, we talk with Dr. Janice Keefe, Professor and Chair of the Department of Family Studies and Gerontology at MSVU, as well as the Lena Isabel Jodrey Chair in Gerontology.
Dr. Keefe holds appointments at Dalhousie University’s Faculties of Medicine and Graduate Studies and is an Affiliated Scientist with NS Health. In 2002, she was selected as Mount Saint Vincent’s first Canada Research Chair in Aging and Caregiving Policy which she held from 2002-2012. In 2006, she was awarded the Lena Isabel Jodrey Chair in Gerontology and appointed Director of the Nova Scotia Centre on Aging. Dr. Keefe’s research areas are caregiving policy and practice, home care policy and practice, and resident and staff well-being in long term care. In the past decade, she has published over 100 articles and technical reports. She teaches courses in social policy and aging in the Master of Arts and Undergraduate Program in Family Studies and Gerontology and provides mentorship and supervision to a number of graduate students and post–doctoral fellows. Below, we talk with Dr. Keefe about community impact, MSVU’s vision, and advice for future researchers.
What originally drew you to work at MSVU?
I did a Masters in sociology, and my thesis was on the effect of dependency on the well-being of older people in PEI. I taught courses at UPEI and eventually came to work with Dartmouth social services. Someone called me in 1988 to see if I would teach a course at the Mount. I’ve been here full time for 33 years; I love the place. I’m very committed to and feel very comfortable with our mission statement, with our vision. It’s also my value system.
When I first came to the Mount in 1990, we had a project on family involvement in nursing homes and hosted a panel sharing our research with the nursing home sector. We laugh here at the Centre, because before anyone even dreamed up the term ‘knowledge translation’, we were doing it. It was just part of our DNA; making sure that we partnered with community groups, and we didn't just go in, get data, and then publish it and not see them again.
Tell me about a memorable time when your research impacted the community.
Nova Scotia is the only province that has an actual payment to family caregivers who meet certain criteria. It's not very much, but it is a recognition of the work that they are doing and some that came out of international research that I was leading on payment to family caregivers. When I first came to the Mount, we reported negative consequences to family members receiving financial support instead of home care services as part of the then welfare deficit model of home care. That was well received, and then they came up with the benefit, we have done some other reports as well. It was a strategy from the government, but we provided the evidence for it and then we were involved in the evaluation of what they were proposing.
How would you say MSVU research has changed over the past years in terms of our themes, access and impact?
I think we've always been the leaders in community outreach. I think that as you move along, our relationships, at least the researcher relationships with key stakeholders in the community, ebbs and flows. In my mind, there's been a real explosion of research at the Mount in the last few years.
How do you see EDIA (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility), as a concept, represent itself at MSVU?
I think it's a core value of who we are that we are always looking to recognize and support diversity. Not just our research but making sure our research participants have access. That goes not just to research, but to teaching and services on campus as well.
In reflecting upon the 150th anniversary of MSVU as an institution, where do you see the future of this university progressing?
We've come a long way from 150 years ago, when it was very novel to have an institution to advance women, even in traditional career paths. We've really broadened our horizons in terms of diversity and advancement. I think we have a niche here; we are doing things (and have done things) in a way that really is authentic community integration. We do it because we've done it. I think that in the future, my hope would be that the importance of that inclusion is recognized and celebrated and brings even more of the community into the university.
Where do you see the future of your research progressing?
I just see the opportunity, if we can get over some of the ageist bias that we have in our society and within the student and research populations, that this is an important sector to be doing research, to be providing evidence, to be doing implementation science. I think there are so many opportunities for us in the aging field.
Specifically, being able to put in some interventions to improve staff well-being and being able to show that evidence. Two years ago, we had this pilot with ten homes in the long-term care sector and the Nova Scotia Nursing Home Association. Now we're doing it again, only we're doing it with 50-60 homes. For those ten homes, we'll be able to show whether the interventions that the government has put in place have made a difference to the health and well-being of staff. And so, to me, it is critically important to have the evidence to be able to assess what has changed and how some of these interventions may foster that change.
What would you tell your past research self?
I would say to be more assertive in terms of what your needs are as a researcher; in order to be able to thrive in a research environment.
Always be true to yourself. Don't say what somebody wants you to say. As a young researcher, it's the development of academic relationships and trust with other stakeholders that's critically important.
Do you have any advice for incoming Mount researchers?