Jillian Alston MD, FRCPC, MScCH

Biography

Dr. Jillian Alston is a geriatrician and clinician teacher practicing at St. Michael’s Hospital. Dr. Alston is passionate about improving care for older adults experiencing housing insecurity. She has established a geriatric outreach program at two shelters and a supportive transitional housing building in Toronto, Ontario. She incorporates medical education, interprofessional education, advocacy and research work alongside the outreach program. Her roles as the Older Adult Medicine Theme Lead for Foundations and the co-faculty representative for the Geriatric Interest Group at Temerty Medical School show her commitment to medical education. Her clinical work also includes inpatient geriatric medicine, home visits and a general geriatric medicine clinic.

From the Nomination

"Dr. Alston has demonstrated a sustained commitment to social responsibility and advocacy through program development, mentoring and teaching of postgraduate trainees, and collaboration with many community organizations to improve the care of older adults experiencing homelessness. She is a sought after role model for trainees interested in leadership in social responsibility.

Dr. Alston nurtures the development of future faculty and medical trainees in leadership in social responsibility by bringing postgraduate trainees to the shelters to conduct geriatric assessments for each training block. After each clinic, she routinely does a debrief with the trainees to discuss pathways to homelessness in older adults and how challenges of aging are amplified in the shelter system."

About the Award

The Robert Sheppard Award for Health Equity and Social Justice was established in 2016 in honour of Dr. Robert Sheppard who served as Associate Dean, Postgraduate Medicine. Dr. Sheppard was deeply committed to volunteering initiatives in his community after retiring from medicine. This award recognizes the outstanding contributions of faculty members and postgraduate trainees in the development and/or implementation of activities, programs or research related to social justice and health equity in faculty development or postgraduate medical education.