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Based upon research presented at the 2011 Festival of International Conferences on Caregiving, Disability, Aging and Technology (FICCDAT)—and specifically the Growing Older with a Disability (GOWD) conference, this paper identifies areas where bridging building between aging and disability is needed to support older adults aging into or with disabilities. Five focal areas emerged: 1) The Need to Forward Bridging Between Aging and Disability Sectors, 2) Theoretical Frameworks of Individual Aging that Facilitate Bridging, 3) Bridging through Consumer Participation and Involvement, 4) Bridging Through Knowledge Transfer and 5) Bridging Opportunities in Long-Term Supports and Services and Assistive Technologies. Discussion of themes is provided within both international and Canadian contexts, reflecting the interests of FICCDAT and GOWD organizers in discussing how to improve bridging in Canada. Findings from this report form the basis of the Toronto Declaration on Bridging Aging and Disability Policy, Practice, and Research.

IntroductionBridging is a term used to describe activities, or tasks, used to promote collaboration and knowledge exchange across fields. This paper reports the protocol for a scoping review which aims to identify and characterise peer reviewed evidence describing bridging activities, between the ageing and disability fields. The purpose is to clarify the concepts underpinning bridging to inform the development of a taxonomy, and identify research strengths and gaps.MethodsA scoping review will be conducted. We will search Medline, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Embase, PsycInfo, Sociological Abstracts and the Cochrane Library, to identify peer reviewed publications (reviews, experimental, observational, qualitative designs and expert commentaries) describing bridging activities. Grey literature, and articles not published in English will be excluded. Two investigators will independently complete article selection and data abstraction to minimise bias. A data extraction form will be iteratively developed and information from each publication will be extracted: (1) bibliographic, (2) methodological, (3) demographic, and (4) bridging information. Qualitative content analysis will be used to describe key concepts related to bridging.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this will be the first scoping review to describe bridging of ageing and disability knowledge, services and policies. The findings will inform the development of a taxonomy to define models of bridging that can be implemented and further evaluated to enable integrated care and improve systems and services for those ageing with disability.Ethics and disseminationEthics is not required because this is a scoping review of published literature. Findings will be disseminated through stakeholder meetings, conference presentations and peer reviewed publication.

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Background: Bridging involves improving knowledge sharing and collaboration across different fields, such as aging and disability. The objectives of this review were to describe: 1) the contexts where bridging has occurred in relation to delivery of health services for adults aging with neurological or developmental conditions; and 2) characterize and map bridging tasks, stakeholders involved, and outcomes discussed in peer-reviewed literature.Methods: Seven databases were searched around the core concepts of "bridging," "aging," and "disability." In total, 10, 819 articles were screened with 49 meeting the inclusion criteria of discussing aging with developmental or neurological disability, explicitly describing bridging tasks, published in English and a peer-reviewed publication. Bibliographic information, sample characteristics, and data on bridging was extracted and included in the qualitative synthesis. Results: Intellectual and/or Developmental disabilities were the most studied population (76% of articles), and most articles were published in the United States (57%). Twenty-two bridging tasks were identified, and categorized into three domains: health and social service delivery (e.g., care coordination tasks), policy (e.g., policy change), and research and training (e.g., mentoring). Stakeholders involved ranged from health care professionals to policy makers and organizations in aging and disability services. Conclusions:The resulting matrix will assist in the specification of bridging in research and practice. Future work should evaluate specific models of bridging and their effects on health service delivery. BackgroundBridging as a field of scientific knowledge considers how silos can be broken down, and how individuals from different fields can work together sharing their knowledge and skills to address complex issues. 'Aging with disability' refers to the study of the processes and experiences of aging, in the context of long-term disability, and this notion has driven much of the interest in the construct of bridging in the health care setting [1,2]. In this article the concept of bridging is applied to the aging and disability fields [3].Bridging emerged in the context of increasingly complex health systems that need to adapt to rising demands and changing consumer needs. Aging populations place an added demand on health services, as rates of disability and health care utilization are high in older populations [2,4,5]. Simultaneously life expectancies have increased, meaning individuals living with disability acquired earlier in life may require services and supports to maintain their health and