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Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Seniors in need, caregivers in distress: What are the home care priorities for seniors in Canada?

On April 16th, the Health Council of Canada will be releasing our report, Seniors in need, caregivers in distress: What are the home care priorities for seniors in Canada?

The use of home care services has notably increased in the last decade. This report takes a deeper look at the seniors who are receiving home care, the family caregivers who are lending support, and the overall challenges of home care in Canada.

Most seniors live at home and want to stay there as long as possible.  In this report, we provide a snapshot of seniors receiving home care in five regions across Canada (the Yukon, Ontario, Nova Scotia, the Northern Health Authority in British Columbia, and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority in Manitoba).

Along with our analyses of home care data, we feature caregiver stories that take a poignant look at the struggles seniors and their caregivers face, as their health care needs increase.

We profile a number of Canadian innovative practices, as well as some international examples of how home care can be integrated within the wider health care system. The recent Senate committee review of the 2004 health accords, Time for Transformative Change, also stressed the importance of integration, calling for governments to develop and implement a continuing care strategy for Canada.

This month, leaders in Canadian home care will be blogging from their unique perspectives in the system. Look for Nadine Henningsen, Executive Director of the Canadian Home Care Association; John Hirdes, interRAI expert and consultant for our report; Shirlee Sharkey, CEO of Saint Elizabeth; and Susan Eng, Vice President for Advocacy at CARP.

We’ll also hear from Kevin Mercer, CEO of the Waterloo Wellington CCAC,  who’ll blog about some system issues surrounding home care, and Paul Holyoke, a home care researcher who will blog about the experiences of home care providers, clients, and caregivers and their perspective on meaningful approaches to care.

On May 9th, we look forward to bringing you a webinar called, Canadian Home Care Priorities For Seniors: What Can We Learn From Australia? The webinar will feature Jeff Fiebig, an expert on Australia’s National Aged Care System, who’ll discuss how Australia was able to integrate care for seniors. Pamela Fralick of the Canadian Healthcare Association and Nadine Henningsen of the Canadian Home Care Association will provide commentary on what we can learn from Australia’s experience.

Aging well matters to all of us. In developing this report, we also drew from our own experiences with family members facing similar challenges and the many personal stories we heard. We hope you’ll find much to talk about and share in your conversations about the future of seniors’ care in Canada.  We hope this report will generate discussion and conversation about your own experiences and the future of senior care in Canada. 


Shilpi Majumder
Policy Lead
Health Council of Canada

4 comments:

  1. Their main focus is to provide the best quality of healthcare and individual fulfillment and have skills in infection control, treatment protection, ability protection, and qualification requirements conformity.

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  2. Unfortunately, many of my hospice clients eschew safe housing for independence. Unable to manage their ADLs, or IADLs, depending upon beleaguered family members, they live in homes they are unable to afford, or maintain, subsisting on Meals on Wheels. Rural seniors are in dire straights.

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  3. No surprizes. Family caregivers have been saying for years that they cannot do it alone and sadly most wait 5 years. What about the young carers- those under 18 ears of age? A largely invisible group and we will see more and more young people helping out. Looking forward to some good planning discussions, hopefully an increase in government funding and exploration of resources available privately.

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    Health is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain.The maintenance and promotion of health is achieved through different combination of physical, mental, and social well-being, together sometimes referred to as the “health triangle".Systematic activities to prevent or cure health problems and promote good health in humans are delivered by health care providers.
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