Province just starting on strategy for seniors
Five thousand new long-term care beds over four years. Thirty thousand over a decade. Fifteen million hours annually of personal support work, therapy and nursing care to support those beds. How can this be anything other than fantastic news?
Premier Kathleen Wynne this week announced a new $155 million plan titled “Aging With Confidence: Ontario’s Action Plan for Seniors.” It includes the new beds as well as money and a commitment aimed at helping seniors stay in their own homes for longer. Overdue, yes. Politically expedient with the provincial election approaching fast, yes. But those factors aside, you cannot credibly argue the money, beds and commitment are not needed. They are. And that need outweighs questions about the motivation and timing.
There are, however, some serious “buts” here. Yes, the new beds are badly needed and welcome, even though 5,000 doesn’t come close to meeting the immediate need across the province. And 30,000 is great, but a decade is simply too long given the rapid growth of need in our aging population. But how quickly will the 5,000 roll out? The most critical need is in the hospital system where acute care beds are being continuously tied up by people waiting for access to long-term care. Get a lot of those new beds on the market very quickly, and it could provide some needed short-term relief. But if they don’t start rolling out until near the end of the four years …
A bigger problem is that this announcement doesn’t adequately address home-care needs. All available research agrees on one point: Seniors want to stay in their own homes as long as they are able to. To facilitate that, services like nursing care, memory assistance, fitness and therapy need to be available close at hand. Not in a clinical setting, but in a community setting.
The government says it recognizes this. But this announcement doesn’t go very far demonstrating that beyond generalities. There’s $15 million over two years to support “naturally-occurring” retirement communities in apartments or residential complexes where seniors already congregate. That’s a start, but not much more.
To be fair, the province has said more specifics will come down when Finance Minister Charles Sousa delivers the government’s economic statement next Tuesday. Let’s hope that’s the case, otherwise this initiative will feel more like election fodder and less like substantial steps forward.
Ontario’s senior population is expected to double over the next 25 years. That’s 4.6 million seniors needing services, support and help to remain active and vibrant. Yes, many will need long-term care beds and support. But what they all want more than anything is to be able to stay as independent as possible for as long as possible. The government has opened the door a crack on achieving that, but it has much further to go before it can claim victory.