Booklet: Cooking up Calm

In response to the isolation that many older adults experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Gail Low Associate Professor, Faculty of Nursing at the #UAlbertaNursing and her Living Well Research Team conceived of an innovative and groundbreaking project - Living After Social Distancing—A Study of Older Canadians. This project studied the effects of the pandemic on the mental health of older adults, and resulted in a one-of-a-kind resource to help seniors manage mental health and improve nutrition.

Recognizing how valuable this project would be to RTOERO members and all Canadian seniors, the RTOERO Foundation approved a proposal to fund Dr. Low’s project in its entirety. 1,327 Canadians 60 years of age and older were surveyed to learn from them about their mentally healthy living strategies during the pandemic. The learnings are captured in a new electronic booklet called 'Cooking up calm'. Included in the booklet are actionable tips based on the six most effective mentally healthy living strategies to emerge from the study, information on the benefits of cooking beyond nutrition and easy-to-make recipes for mentally healthy living — plus other sage advice.