At the Sinai Health System/University Health Network education day, June 12 in Toronto, a range of topics were discussed related to aging, health and care, from hearing loss to medication safety and advance care planning. Quite an enlightening day with a subtitle that I have come to adopt and prefer to go forward with – “strengthening the support of older adults across the continuum of care.”
Now six months later, I reflect back to what moderator Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Geriatrics noted, as part of his opening presentation. He said that with so much to digest with respect to aging at home and in place, we all need to learn how to stay proactive in gathering an ongoing database of information on our own, “Become your own care navigator.”
After many all-pervading conversations this year, on the subject of caregiving for older adults, either with professionals in the field of aging and longevity, or with friends and family, it comes at a very timely moment as we head into another decade, that we get some focus point. That has come with the September and October 2019 release of the National Institute on Ageing (NIA) first two reports on The Future of Long Term Care in Canada. Links to my four posts on these reports are included at the end of this update post.
Not clear to me at the time, NIA announced
last week that the third report is due sometime in 2020, once a consultation
process takes place. Contributions from this feedback survey as the NIA says
will support this final in the well-written
series. I highly encourage participation in this consultation for “a new course for the provision of long-term
care in Canada – a course that seeks to improve quality, access, and
affordability for Canadians, governments, and providers.”
However, before the deadline of January 31st 2020 when this NIA consultation process closes, please get the overall context by reading fully the first two reports.
Enabling the Future Provision of Long Term Care in Canada
The Future Cost of Long Term Care
As I have expressed before, however we create a new course that the NIA is advocating for, Long-Term Care is an intergenerational concern. As the NIA reports take us along the road to 2050, we must know that more than one generation will be engaged in the caregiving continuum in the later years of a life course, either as caregivers, as decision makers in the sourcing of publicly funded and privately paid services and/or as recipients in need of care themselves.
Change Rangers Blog Post Sept.17 Blog Post Sept.24 Blog Post Oct.22 Blog Post Oct.29