I am looking forward to rejoining my friends and making new friends in Ottawa for the 40th Anniversary of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, Equity and Rights. In 1986, Canada hosted an international conference on “health promotion” in Ottawa at the invitation of the World Health Organization’s Director-General. The result was a written Charter (known now as the Ottawa Charter), that outlined key reforms needed to address better health promotion:

  • Build health public policies, directing policy makers to “accept their responsibilities for health” and advance health promotion through legislation, fiscal measures, taxation and organizations;
  • Create supportive environments, considering the interrelation between people, their environment, and their communities;
  • Strengthen community action, focusing on empowering communities through new resources and access to information;
  • Develop personal skills, highlighting the improvement of health literacy and education; and
  • Reorient health services, advocating that health systems expand beyond clinical services to encompass social and cultural needs.

This year, the opening keynote address will be by Evelyn de Leeuw, from the School of Public Health, University of Montreal.

Over the course of two days, there will be five separate panels of speakers on building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments, strengthening community action, personal and social development, and breaking silos in health mandates. There is planned time for discussion on the last afternoon. Professor Vanessa Gruben, the director of University of Ottawa’s Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics will provide closing remarks.

My presentation on October 21 will focus on efforts of researchers and health and social care teams in Northern Ireland to establish programs for “ageing well home support visitors” that can provide personalized discussion and counseling for older people and their families. The NI program is built on evidence from Denmark showing positive outcomes in both health and self-care actions in that country, connected to “preventative” home-visits.

Keep an eye on this Blog for highlights from this conference!

Photo of Katherine C. Pearson Katherine C. Pearson

Katherine C. Pearson is a Professor of Law and the Arthur L. and Sandra S. Piccone Faculty Scholar at Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Her scholarship focuses on laws and policies connected to aging and she has frequently included age-related issues…

Katherine C. Pearson is a Professor of Law and the Arthur L. and Sandra S. Piccone Faculty Scholar at Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Her scholarship focuses on laws and policies connected to aging and she has frequently included age-related issues in her teaching of courses on contract law, conflicts of law and nonprofit organizations law.  She is a regular speaker for continuing education programs, both for consumers and lawyers, to address cutting edge concerns in consumer protection for older adults.  She is the author of articles and chapters on access to justice, senior living options including continuing care and life plan communities, long-term care financing and filial obligations, and is the co-author of a treatise, The Law of Financial Abuse and Exploitation (Bisel 2011).

She authored chapters for the Research Handbook on Law, Society and Ageing, published in 2024 as part of a series on law and society handbooks offered by international publisher Edward Elgar. She is a 2024-2025 Fulbright Scholar in Canada and was in residence at the University of Ottawa in the Fall of 2024 as the Research Chair in Health Law, Policy and Ethics.  Her earlier experience as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar (based at the Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, and working in Ireland, Portugal, and the U.K. in 2009-10), resulted in publications, including an article with an international, historical perspective on ethical concerns for attorneys representing older adults, entitled “The Lesson of the Irish Family Pub,” published by Stetson Law Review.

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