At a recent virtual panel hosted by the Empire Club, Canadian experts grappled with the concept of aging at home. It’s a win-win for both government, which needs cheaper, more efficient ways to treat our aging population, and seniors themselves, who overwhelmingly view their homes as comfortable, safe and desirable places to grow old.
As many as 97 per cent of seniors want to age at home, panel moderator Peter Mansbridge noted.
“It’s a huge number,” he said. “And behind every one of those numbers is a person. It may be your grandmother. It may be your father. It may be you.”
Yet despite the confluence of interests and all the good reasons to invest in home care, the provincial government has been largely silent on new investments. In its spring budget, government allocated billions in new funding for hospitals and long-term-care homes. When it came to home care, government drew the curtains and turned out the lights. There was no new money.
Meanwhile, seniors are facing a perfect storm of factors that will make it increasingly difficult to realize their goal of aging at home: they’re living longer lives and financing higher expenses with less support from shrinking families. Our own experience throughout the pandemic adds even more clouds to the horizon.
Since COVID-19 began in early 2020, Ontario’s home-care system has lost 3,000 nurses. Government data shows the impact that has had on care. The percentage of time home-care providers could fulfil a request for nursing visits has dropped from 95 per cent pre-pandemic to 60 per cent in August. This means home-care providers are now unable to effectively serve four out of every 10 people who need nursing care.
The consequences are simple.
People who need nursing care at home can’t get it, so they’re going elsewhere. Or worse, they’re not getting it at all.
Last month in Hamilton, the chief of emergency at a major hospital noted “record numbers” of patients flooding into his institution. The number of patient visits were about five per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels and were, he said, part of a provincial trend.
“I don’t think we fully understand where the higher volume has come from,” Dr. Greg Rutledge told the Spectator.
At Home Care Ontario, we have a very good idea where the influx is coming from.
In our deeply interconnected health-care system, major events upstream will inevitably have downstream consequences.
Home care supports over a million people and their families every year. When home care isn’t available, many of those people who could receive care at home will instead go to their local hospital emergency department.
It works the other way too. Home care allows hospital patients — people healing from surgery, for example — to leave those institutions. When home care is not available, patients must remain in hospitals longer.
With a backlog of an estimated 419,000 surgeries, expect the consequences to worsen.
The good news is there are solutions available. The government can choose to make an urgent $600 million available to help stabilize our wounded home-care system. The investment would help attract and retain 3,800 nurses, personal support workers and skilled therapists into home care.
Additionally, the government could introduce a new tax credit to support up to $10,000 in annual family-funded home-care services.
These are both measures we are advocating for.
While there are many dark clouds on the horizon, there are emerging signs that public awareness around these issues is changing.
A poll released this month found that 86 per cent of respondents believe the pandemic has made Ontario’s home-care system more important than ever.
The survey, which interviewed 1,034 people over the age of 55, also found that 97 per cent thought it was important for government to increase funding for home care.
At the Empire Club discussion, panellists noted the need for hospitals and long-term-care homes will never disappear.
For the 97 per cent of seniors who want to age at home, however, the key is to only use them when they must. For the rest of the time, home care is their health care.
This article was originally published in the Toronto Star by Sue VanderBent.
