Canada will soon become a “super obsolete” country. Why that’s a problem

Unless Canadian governments radically change their approach to long-term care, older adults face a bleak future, according to a new report from the National Institute on Aging.

The third and final report in the NIA’s “roadmap” for improved long-term care – with an emphasis on community support over traditional nursing homes – says staffing shortages, funding shortfalls and a rapidly aging population have created a dire situation, exposing and exacerbating the pandemic.

The final report, released Thursday, is titled “Enabling a more promising future for long-term care in Canada.” It calls for a new approach with a strong focus on community long-term care, with institutional care as the “exception”.

It recommends policies that focus on evidence-based, person-centered care; technologies that support what the NIA calls “Aging in the right place”; and a solution to the current workforce shortage by offering jobs that are “appropriately supported and recognised”.

“It is clear,” says the most recent report, “that without a paradigm shift in how Canada finances, organizes and delivers LTC services, the challenges will only continue to hinder (or pave the way for) sustainable and fiscally responsible supply. will block. of high quality LTC services.

“Therefore, there is no time like the present to move forward with a balanced approach to enable a more promising future for long-term care delivery in Canada.”

Dr. Samir Sinha, the NIA’s director of health policy research, said the final report in the NIA’s long-term care trilogy makes it clear that the current path forward “is completely unsustainable and will not meet the needs of current or future older people Canadians. ”

It’s all about demographics.

By early 2030, Canada is expected to join the ranks of “super obsolete” countries, such as Japan and Germany, where about one in five people are over the age of 65. In 25 years, as many as 2.5 million Canadians will be over the age of 85, more than double the number in the 2021 census.

Governments, Sinha said, are simply hoping that their inaction will be alleviated by unpaid caregivers stepping in and filling in the gaps.

“In 30 years we will have 30 percent less available carers and 70 percent more elderly people who need help,” he said. “So that’s not sustainable.”

Sinha said the report shows an inevitable slump if current practice continues with limited funding, a reliance on care facilities and the hospitalization of older adults waiting for a nursing home bed.

“If 15 percent of your hospital beds are occupied by people who only need long-term care, imagine what we’re going to do when there are many more elderly people who need those services,” he said.

“I think not only our long-term care systems, but our entire healthcare system will collapse if we don’t take progressive action now.”

In 2021, more than 52,000 Canadians were on waiting lists for placement in an LTC home, while about 167,000 Canadians aged 65 and older were estimated to have unmet home care needs, the report said.

Those with higher unmet care needs were reported in households in areas of lower socioeconomic status, creating inequality among those with lower incomes, the report said.

Privately paid care in someone’s home can cost tens of thousands of dollars per month for people with very high needs.

Currently, most people survive on unpaid care from spouses and relatives. About 35 percent of working Canadians also provide unpaid family care, according to the report. One-third of those unpaid caregivers reported distress.

And yet, as the NIA reported, by 2050 there will be far fewer family and friends to provide that unpaid care, due to lower birth rates.

While unpaid support decreases, demand increases. The number of Canadians in need of unpaid caregivers is expected to rise from 345,000 to 700,000 by 2050.

With a focus on the changes facing Canada as its population ages, the NIA’s first two reports, published in 2019, highlighted the struggles of the provinces and territories to meet the growing needs of an older population and warned against a future without change.

The report calls for a new emphasis on community support funding and programs and notes that recent figures from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development have shown that in Canada, 64 percent of funding for “long-term care” (defined as in the community and institutions) goes to traditional physical nursing homes. Another 15 percent goes to hospitals and 18 percent to community care.

The purpose of the report, Sinha said, is to present practical national and international guidelines.

“It will help us create a sustainable path forward.”

Moira Welsh is a Toronto Star journalist who leads The Third Act project pushing for changes in the way the elderly live. Follow her on Twitter: @moirawelsh

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