2020 News

Only a fraction of long-term-care residents killed by COVID-19 were taken to hospital. A Mount Sinai doctor says the system ‘shut them out’ with beds available

By: Kenyon Wallace

Only a fraction of long-term-care residents killed by COVID-19 were taken to hospital. A news study by Associate Fellow at the NIA, Nathan Stall says the system ‘shut them out’ with beds available.

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Long-term care commission urges Ontario to improve inspections, enforcement

By: Laura Stone

Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at the NIA a geriatrician who has testified twice at the commission, said the members are committed to understanding the systemic issues plaguing long-term care homes and called on the government to act on their recommendations quickly.

“Currently our inspections process is broken,” he said. “I definitely would invest in the system to make sure that it actually has the capacity ... to make sure that every home is receiving a comprehensive annual inspection.”

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Long-term care industry waiting for advice on COVID-19 vaccine rollout

By: Kelly Grant and Karen Howlett

“Time saves lives,” said Samir Sinha, director of health policy research at the NIA . If Health Canada authorizes the first COVID-19 vaccine this month, as the regulator has signalled it will, and doses languish in freezers for even a short time, “there’ll be more cases of COVID and more deaths,” Dr. Sinha said. “And that will just be an absolute shame.”

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Doctors concerned about rise in dangerous medications in long-term care homes during pandemic

By: Kaleigh Alkenbrack

Faced with staff shortages and lockdowns that restrict caregiver visits, nursing homes increasingly fall back on medications to regulate behaviour and manage mental health concerns, says Toronto geriatrician Dr. Nathan Stall.

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Protecting Seniors from COVID At What Cost

The restrictions intended to protect seniors against COVID-19 have created other unintended consequences. Is the sacrifice many families are making - to stay apart for the greater good - really the best approach for seniors' health? Geriatrician and NIA Associate Fellow Dr. Nathan Stall and psychiatrist-in-chief Dr. Lesley Wiesenfeld at Sinai Health weigh in, as does journalist Christina Frangou.

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How COVID-19 has changed the way families think about long-term care in Ontario

By Daina Goldfinger

“I think what we’ve really seen is that the public’s confidence in our long-term care system has been greatly shaken,” said Dr. Samir Sinha, health policy research director at Ryerson University’s National Institute on Ageing, one of the organizations behind the survey.

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'I’ll put on a Hazmat suit just to sit down and talk to her': Prince Albert man hopes long term care home COVID-19 restrictions eased by Christmas

By: Francois Biber

A doctor with the National Institute on Ageing (NIA) said families and caregivers should be allowed to visit loved ones in long term care homes - if they are treated like care-home staff.

Dr. Samir Sinha, director of health policy research for NIA and director of geriatrics with the Sinai Health System in Toronto, said the effects of isolating family members far outweighs the risk of spreading the virus in a care home.

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Ask Me Anything: Dr. Samir Sinha on long-term care

Long-term care homes across the country are once again facing a wave of COVID-19 outbreaks. Dr. Samir Sinha is the director of geriatrics at Sinai Health System and University Health Network Hospitals in Toronto and answers caller questions.

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How Ontario's second wave of COVID-19 is hitting long-term care

"The greatest predictor of whether a home is going to experience an outbreak is community transmission," said Dr. Nathan Stall, a geriatrician at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. "Where you have more community transmission, you have a worse number of outbreaks."

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Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at the National Institute on Ageing joins CTV News Channel to discuss the myCOVID19VisitRisk Decision Aid.

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Ford asks Trudeau for details of vaccine types, quantities, and timing

By Iain Sherriff-Scott

The requirement for Pfizer’s vaccine could throw a logistical wrench into its widespread distribution, Dr. Samir Sinha told iPolitics in an interview.

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My COVID Risk Decision Tool

Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at the National Institute on Ageing in Toronto joined Ismaila Alfa on CBC Metro Morning to discuss the new expert-informed #myCOVID19VisitRisk Decision Aid to help anyone better appreciate the potential risks of visiting with others during this pandemic.

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Rapid tests are a game changer, Doug Ford says. Public Health Ontario’s head of microbiology has a very different view

By: Kate Allen

False negatives — missing a positive case — could have obviously devastating consequences in long-term care, where residents are acutely vulnerable to severe disease and where almost two-thirds of Ontario’s COVID deaths have occurred. But false positives — inaccurately flagging a positive case — can also have dire consequences, says Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at the National Institute on Ageing, another expert who provided advice.

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Ontario in 'precarious situation,' health officials say, as new modelling shows slower COVID-19 growth

COVID-19 growth rates are slowing in Ontario, new provincial modelling shows — but health officials warn the province is not yet seeing the decline in cases that would be needed before any restrictions are loosened. Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing, speaks to CBC News.

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COVID-19 Rapid Testing

Are the new rapid COVID-19 tests rolling out to long term care homes the "game-changer" the province is billing them as? Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing joined CBC Metro morning and says they are not "a silver bullet."

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Coronavirus: Isolation taking a toll on mental health of Sask. seniors, some experts say

By Katelyn Wilson

“While we are so busy trying to protect (seniors) from COVID, they might end up dying of isolation and loneliness and we have started hearing cases from people saying, ‘I want to die,'” said Dr. Samir Sinha, the director of Health Policy Research for the National Institute on Ageing, and the director of geriatrics for the Sinai Health System. The National Institute on Ageing has been tracking COVID-19 across the country and the toll it’s taken on retirement homes.

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Fighting a Second Wave in Long-Term Care Homes

Long-term care homes have been some of the hardest hit places by COVID-19 in this province. Considering the lessons from the first wave, why is that still happening? The Agenda discusses the current state of virus control in long-term care homes with Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at the National Institute on Ageing.

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Pattie Lovett-Reid: Worried about outliving your money? Time to rethink CPP

I was recently hosting the FPCanada Symposium and had the privilege of listening to Dr. Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, Director of Financial Security Research, National Institute on Ageing. She fundamentally believes most Canadians who can afford to defer their CPP/QPP benefits should do so. By delaying your benefits you are essentially purchasing an inexpensive, inflation-indexed and very secure defined benefit pension.

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Rethinking your Canada Pension Plan

CTV's Pattie Lovett-Reid discusses upcoming NIA research by Dr. Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, Director of Financial Security Research, National Institute on Ageing on why more Canadians should consider delaying their #CPP Benefits. It’s the best way to boost inflation protected retirement income for life.

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A look at what has gone wrong in Ontario long-term care amid the coronavirus pandemic

By Ryan Rocca

Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the NIA has spent much of the year studying how eight out of 10 COVID-19 deaths in Canada’s first coronavirus wave were in long-term care.

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How risky is going home for the holidays amid coronavirus? There’s a tool for that

By Emerald Bensadoun

“What we’re seeing, especially amongst younger populations compared to older people, is that a lot of loneliness, a lot of social isolation is being felt by people across the generations,” said Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at the NIA and brains behind the operation.

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Samir Sinha, director of health policy research at the National Institute on Ageing, said making small adjustments to how restaurants and other businesses operate won’t have a meaningful impact on COVID-19 spread.

“Trying to say, ‘Well, maybe if we close the bar an hour early’ – that’s the equivalent of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic,” Dr. Sinha said.

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Remembrance Day 2020: CBC News Special

Rosemary Barton hosts special coverage of the national Remembrance Day service in Ottawa and speaks with Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at the National institute on Ageing.

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HOUSES OF HORROR

By: Jason McBride

Samir Sinha, director of health policy at the National Institute on Ageing is blunt: “The ways we’ve organized and financed and staffed these homes—they have so many vulnerabilities. They were sitting ducks.”

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COVID-19 in Maples Senior Care Home - Is Enough Being Done?

Dr. Samir Sinha, director of health policy research at the NIA joined CTV news Winnipeg to discuss the recent surge of COVID-19 cases at Maples Senior Care Home.

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Toronto announces stricter measures after breaking COVID-19 records

Ontario's COVID-19 situation continues to worsen, but the province is staying the course. So Toronto is charting its own course and tightening restrictions with NIA Associate Fellow Dr. Nathan Stall.

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Some Want the Province to Go Further with Restrictions, as New Daily Cases Hit the Highest Point Yet

By: Lorenda Reddekopp

National Institute on Ageing associate fellow, Dr. Nathan Stall joins CBC Toronto to discuss increasing cases of COVID-19 in long-term care. Dr. Stall says, "It's gotten to the point where I truly believe that government feels the cost of doing business in this province is the death of about 8-12 long-term care residents a day in our province. They have shown no indication that they are willing to change course."

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It’s been 28 days, and Toronto is scheduled to reduce restrictions. What are five key indicators telling us?

By: Jennifer Yang

A study that geriatrician and Associate Fellow at the National institute on Ageing, Dr. Nathan Stall, co-authored in August showed that the risk of a long-term-care outbreak was strongly linked to case numbers in the surrounding community.

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Crowded nursing homes linked to larger and more deadly outbreaks of Covid-19, study says

By: Naomi Thomas

Crowded nursing homes were linked to larger and more deadly outbreaks of Covid-19 according to a study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. "In this study of nursing home crowding across 618 nursing homes in Ontario, Canada, we found that residents of highly crowded homes were more than twice as likely to develop infection with and die of Covid-19," wrote authors Kevin Brown, from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing.

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COVID-19 Outbreaks in Manitoba

COVID-19 outbreaks in Manitoba long term care homes are concerning. Director of Health Policy Research at the National Institute on Ageing, Dr. Samir Sinha, talked about what can be done to protect older adults.

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Maples care home not fully staffed during Friday crisis, despite claims it was, union says

By: Joanne Levasseur

But Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at the National Institute on Ageing, who has been closely watching the long term care home crisis in Manitoba unfold, said residents would typically get IVs for dehydration "because there's not enough staff around to actually hydrate residents or they might not have family members there who can hydrate them."

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‘I didn’t feel right’: This 80-year-old Toronto shelter resident thought she was losing her mind. Turns out, she had COVID-19 — with none of the typical symptoms

By: Victoria Gibson

That kind of delirium is one of the atypical ways that COVID-19 can show up, particularly in older adults, said Toronto geriatrician and Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing, Dr. Nathan Stall. But because it doesn’t look like a typical case, it’s also the kind of situation where the virus can go undetected.

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The single biggest mistake of the pandemic.’ Ontario’s sudden shift in pandemic strategy rattles medical community

By: Bruce Arthur

The province didn’t ask Ontario’s geriatrics community. Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at the National Institute on Ageing blasted it. Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing, compared it to the Great Barrington Declaration, which was a herd immunity document that posited, with no evidence, that vulnerable parts of the population could be protected if societies reopened with no restrictions. He’s not wrong.

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Red Cross not enough to help Manitoba care homes battling outbreaks, families say

By: Jill Coubrough, Joanne Levasseur ·

Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing, calls the situation inside Manitoba personal care homes a "humanitarian crisis," and he says it should never have gotten to the point of calling in the Red Cross.

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Why are older adults more vulnerable to COVID-19?

Marilyn Denis speaks to geriatrician and Director of Health Policy Research at the National Institute on Ageing Dr. Samir Sinha about how the coronavirus affects older adults.

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Pharmacies facing flu shot shortages the one year people are anxious to roll up their sleeves. Is this a missed opportunity?

By: Kate Allen

This is “the one year that (people) are finally willing to roll up their sleeves to get a vaccination,” noted Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at the National Institute on Ageing in Toronto.

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Changes coming to Long Term Care homes

Kelly talks to Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research for the National Institute on Ageing about the proposed changes to Ontario's LTC system.

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Some families say isolation is worse than COVID for loved ones in long-term care homes

By: Pamela Fieber

The National Institute on Aging is tracking COVID-19 and the toll it is taking on retirement homes across the country. Greenspon's comments show how care home residents are struggling to cope, said Dr. Samir Sinha, the director of Health Policy Research for the Institute, and the director of geriatrics for the Sinai Health System.

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COVID-19: What We Know About the Second Wave and a Targeted Approach for Protecting Canadians

By: Tara Losinski and Peter Muggridge

With 509 LTC resident active COVID-19 cases in Ontario reported on Saturday (an increase of 50 from the previous day) and a case fatality rate of approximately 30 per cent in this population, Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing, Dr. Nathan Stall, predicts many more deaths will be recorded in the coming days.

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Merrilee Fullerton’s Past Health-Care Views Spur Questions Amid Pandemic

By: Emma Paling

The question over public versus private ownership is bubbling up because of how COVID-19 outbreaks have played out, Dr. Samir Sinha told HuffPost Canada. He’s the health policy research director of Ryerson University’s National Institute on Ageing.

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Ottawa restaurant owner challenges mayor, premier to serve tables and experience patio weather

By: Jeremie Charron

"If you do proceed with reopening and outbreaks continue to rise in this setting, not only are you choosing to prioritize businesses over the lives of people living in long-term care homes but you’re going to have to keep the people who live in there in essential lockdown," said Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing.

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Why experts aren't declaring victory yet despite fewer COVID-19 deaths so far in Ontario's 2nd wave

"There's a definite trend towards improvement, but with a caveat," Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing, told CBC News. "We haven't observed where that trend is going to end up."

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How low testing on the weekend may be making it harder to control Ontario’s second wave

By: Kenyon Wallace and Ed Tubb

Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at The National Institute on Ageing in Toronto, says Ontario needs a “clear road map” for what the province is trying to accomplish with testing.

“We’ve swung from one way of the government being concerned that not enough people were going to get tested, to then opening the floodgates by saying anybody who wants a test for any reason can go get a test,” he said.

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October 28, 2020 – CTV News Channel

Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at The National Institute on Ageing, joined CTV News Channel to discuss COVID-19 in Canada's long term care homes.

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Woman who died of COVID-19 only separated from Parkview Place roommate by end tables between beds, son learns

By: Joanne Levasseur, Jill Coubrough ·

During the first wave of COVID-19, 31 per cent of Ontario long-term care resident deaths could have been averted if they were in single rooms, said Dr. Nathan Stall, a geriatrician at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, who co-authored a study that concludes reducing crowding in care homes could reduce deaths. "When a case of COVID-19 gets into a care home … they're like tinderboxes and they spread very rapidly and with devastating consequences," said Stall in an interview with CBC News.

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Grim milestone: Canada marks 10,000 COVID-19 deaths as country battles second wave

By: Kelly Grant

That 80 per cent figure cuts two ways: It shows that Canada failed to protect residents of long-term care in the first wave, but succeeded in minimizing deaths among everyone else.

A paper by the Toronto geriatricians and researchers Nathan Stall and Samir Sinha neatly captures this dichotomy. Their study looked at deaths among residents of long-term care in a dozen OECD countries, some of which rode out the first wave well (Germany, Denmark) and some of which didn’t (Spain, Italy.)

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Pandemic highlights widespread societal ageism

By: Ben Waldman

Toronto-based, Winnipeg-born physician and geriatrician Dr. Nathan Stall, who is currently studying toward a PhD in clinical epidemiology.

"To label it as ‘unavoidable’ really is an attitude we refer to as therapeutic nihilism," he said. "If you start with the premise that nothing you do matters, it becomes easier to justify doing nothing." Stall’s study of care-home outbreaks in Ontario and Quebec during the pandemic’s first wave showed pre-pandemic conditions played a major role in how the virus spread: non-profit homes had smaller and less deadly outbreaks than for-profit ones, and matters such as sanitation and design standards — ventilation, efforts to reduce crowding — contributed significantly to resident safety.

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Hospitals full as cases surge in province’s ‘hot spots’: These 3 charts show where Ontario is right now in the COVID-19 battle

By: Kenyon Wallace and Patty Winsa

“If you ask around the hospital, are we nervous? Absolutely, because right now our hospitals are 100 per cent full,” said Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at the National Institute on Ageing in Toronto, adding the current numbers reflect the spread of the virus two weeks ago, namely Thanksgiving.

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How to have a safe Halloween in the midst of COVID-19

By: Nicole Ireland

But Dr. Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at Mount Sinai Health and University Health Network in Toronto, said it's important to strike a balance. Halloween often brings a nice opportunity for older neighbours to interact with younger ones. "I think for a lot of older people, this can be a little bit of a socialization highlight of their year," he said.

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Inspection at Parkview Place Highlights Issues

Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing, speaks to CTV Winnipeg about a COVID-19 outbreak at Manitoba LTC homes.

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CBC National - Ontario confronts 2nd wave with 1,000 new COVID-19 cases

Ontario tops 1,000 new COVID-19 cases for the first time with outbreaks multiplying in long-term care homes and growing stress on hospitals, interview with Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing.

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Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the NIA, joins Global News The Morning Show to discuss how we've failed those living in long-term care.

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She's 28, survived COVID-19, and is living in a long-term care home with 200+ violations

By: Lauren Pelley

According to Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at the NIA, longstanding issues in the long-term care system go far beyond any individual home. "Before this pandemic, long-term care was really struggling in Ontario, in the sense that it's a really underfunded system," he said.

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Parkview Place needs province to take over care: Manitoba NDP, experts

By: Brittany Greenslade

“The fact that we are seeing such a spectacular outbreak happen in downtown Winnipeg, in a home that we knew had a high likelihood of this happening, it concerns me,” Mount Sinai Director of Geriatrics Dr. Samir Sinha said.

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Doug Ford’s government is making it almost impossible to sue long-term-care homes. Good thing he’s ‘protecting’ COVID victims’ families

By: Bruce Arthur

“Ontario took a week or maybe a month to implement things,” says Sinha. “So if you ask long-term-care homes who’s to blame here, they’re going to tell you it was the government, because the government just wasn’t there to help them. So people could easily point to the government and say that it was the government’s inaction that actually led to this legislation. We can say the homes were acting in good faith, or doing what they could under the circumstances, but it was almost the blind leading the blind.

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COVID-19 is changing the way we think about aging and long-term care

According to Canada's National Institute for Aging (NIA), long-term care homes aren't the only ones with altered perspectives on aging because of COVID-19. In a survey conducted in July, the institute found that about 60 per cent of Canadians, and almost 70 per cent of Canadians 65 years and older, reported that COVID-19 has changed their opinion on whether or not they'd arrange for themselves or an older loved one to live in a nursing or retirement home.

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COVID-19 had a devastating effect on the quality of life of nursing home residents. We may never know how much because some homes hit pause on assessing it

By: Moira Welsh

Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at the National Institute on Ageing, said CIHI’s long-term data is considered high quality. Both analyze it for major research projects. Sinha said the indicators “tell you how this resident is doing and how can we better plan their care. But if you don’t actually do that assessment, you are almost flying blind.”

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Protecting seniors in Manitoba personal care homes

Geriatrics medicine specialist Dr. Nathan Stall explains how care home outbreaks can be prevented or controlled.

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Dr. Samir Sinha, director of health policy research at The National Institute on Ageing , joined CTV National News to discuss the particular vulnerability of LTC residents across Canada as we continue to experience unprecedented levels of community transmission of COVID-19 + hundreds of LTC outbreaks.

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Toronto doctors slam Manitoba's health minister for saying care home deaths are unavoidable

By: Joanne Levasseur ·

Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the NIA, disputes Friesen's claim. He called the notion that deaths are unavoidable ageist and urged Friesen to reconsider. "Outbreaks like the one in Winnipeg's Parkview Place are avoidable tragedies," Stall tweeted at Friesen.

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There’s a cost in money, isolation and family stress when seniors choose to remain in their own private homes

By: Rob Carrick

Deaths in long-term care homes during the pandemic have undermined the idea that institutionalized care means safety and security. The National Institute on Ageing at Ryerson University did an online survey of 1,517 adults this summer and found that COVID-19 had influenced 60 per cent to change their mind about arranging for themselves or a loved one to move into a nursing or retirement home. At 65 and older, 70 per cent changed their mind.

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COVID-19 has Canadians rethinking how they want to spend retirement: survey

A new survey suggests the COVID-19 pandemic has made Canadians re-think how they want to spend their retirement years. Dr. Samir Sinha. director of health policy research at The National Institute on Ageing, joins Devon Peacock on the Morning Show to discuss

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COVID-19 Outbreak at 2 Toronto Hospitals

Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research and Co-Chair of the National Institute on Ageing joined CTV News to discuss the second wave of COVID-19.

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COVID tests, lockdown stress and bread-making contests: Homes with three generations under one roof face added risks in the pandemic — but there are upsides

By: Victoria Gibson

Dr. Samir Sinha said he’s seen multiple families in recent months hold off on placing a relative into long-term care, or pull them out of a facility to care for them at home instead. The decision wasn’t always easy, especially as lockdown measures began to relax this summer, Sinha said. “As the kids are going back to school, all of a sudden you have to think about, well, you’ve got an older generation in the household now who is at increased risk if COVID is brought into the home.”

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Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research and Co-Chair of the National Institute on Ageing joined Susan Bonner on CBC Radio to discuss Long Term Care Standards during COVID-19.

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Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research and Co-Chair of the National Institute on Ageing joined CTV News to discuss the NIA/TELUS Health survey results.

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As COVID-19 cases climb in long-term care homes, experts hope to avoid locking down residents

By: Nicole Ireland

But after Labour Day, as COVID-19 cases sharply rose among the general public, so too did the number of outbreaks in long-term care. "It really reminds us that the outbreaks that we see in our nursing homes and our retirement homes across the country are really the product of community transmission," Sinha told Dr. Brian Goldman, host of the CBC podcast The Dose.

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Coronavirus cases on the rise again in Ontario nursing homes

By: Katie Howlett

Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing in Toronto, said the greatest risk factor for a long-term care home is the prevalence of COVID-19 cases in the community. Many of the staff in these homes are racialized women who live in poorer neighbourhoods where the virus is particularly prevalent, he said, and they can unknowingly transmit it into their workplace.

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COVID-19 outbreaks are hitting nursing homes again: Can we avoid another catastrophe?

By: Sharon Kirkey

“It wasn’t until the last couple of weeks that money started being committed for things like personal support workers and accelerated training programs to train up enough of a work force — things Quebec and B.C. had been doing since June,” said Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the NIA.

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New research finds thousands of long-stay home-care clients did not get flu shot in 2019

By: Desmond Brown

Most governments have made the flu vaccine freely available and accessible, even in places like pharmacies across the country. The vaccine is available for anyone who is six months or older. "The challenge is that for the type of person that John and his team is studying, these tend to be people who are functionally homebound," Sinha explained.

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Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the NIA, talks to The Morning Show with Stafford and Supriya about the second wave of COVID-19 in long term care homes.

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Why a 2nd wave of COVID-19 is more dangerous than it looks
By: Adam Miller

"It may seem somewhat comforting to say, 'Yes, there are a lot of cases, but we're not seeing our hospitals overwhelmed, and we're not seeing a huge number of deaths so far. So things are better, right?'" said Dr. Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at Sinai Health and University Health Network in Toronto. "The truth of the matter is, we're just getting started."

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Ontario home-care providers push for expanded services to fight pandemic

By: Shawn Jeffords

Dr. Samir Sinha, the Director of Health Policy Research and Co-Chair of the National Institute on Ageing, has been advocating for an overhaul for the home-care system for years. Sinha said more than 38,000 Ontarians are on wait lists to get into long-term care because there isn’t enough access to home care.

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Ontario home-care providers push for expanded services to fight pandemic

By: Shawn Jeffords

Dr. Samir Sinha, the Director of Health Policy Research and Co-Chair of the National Institute on Ageing, has been advocating for an overhaul for the home-care system for years. Sinha said more than 38,000 Ontarians are on wait lists to get into long-term care because there isn’t enough access to home care.

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What have we learned about COVID-19 to keep my elderly loved one safe in long-term care this time around?

Dr. Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at Sinai Health and University Health Network in Toronto, joins host Dr. Brian Goldman on The Dose to share his insight into what we've learned about COVID-19 and what we need to do to keep our elderly loved ones in long-term care safe this fall and winter.

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After almost 1,900 deaths in long-term care homes since the pandemic began, some say the province should have been able to prevent these new outbreaks. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the NIA, spoke with CBC National about the second wave of COVID-19 and the crisis in long term care facilities.

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Ryerson-based NIA is doing research aimed at reforming long-term care facilities ravaged by COVID-19

Written by Deepak Bidwai

By May, 81 per cent of all COVID-19 deaths in Canada had occurred in long-term care facilities. The Ryerson-based National Institute on Ageing (NIA) is doing research that will play an important role in reforming these facilities. We talked to its executive director, Michael Nicin, about this vulnerable demographic, and the future of recovery.

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More than one in six Canadians are now at least 65 years old. Many Canadian families are already juggling the responsibilities of caring for their parents and their own children. The wait lists for long term care are outliving the patients on them. What can be done?

In this episode, we’ll speak with Dr. Michael Nicin, Executive Director, Ryerson’s National Institute on Ageing and Karen Cumming, Journalist, Author of The Indispensable Survival Guide to Ontario's Long-Term Care System about the realities facing our ageing population.

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Are long-term care homes ready for the second wave? Toronto geriatrician and Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing, Dr. Nathan Stall, says no. Hear what he says needs to happen to protect residents and staff.

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Is Canada about to fail the residents of long-term care homes a second time?

According to the National Institute on Ageing (NIA) at Ryerson University in Toronto, whose data are gathered across the widest possible number of sources, 80 per cent of deaths in Quebec have involved residents of public and private LTC facilities. In Ontario, the figure is 73 per cent.

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Liberal government proposes penalizing those who neglect seniors in care

By: Janice Dickson

Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the NIA, pointed out that elder abuse is already a crime, but said the repercussions for operators of care homes who fail to protect their residents have been inadequate to discourage repeat offenders. “Amending the Criminal Code to penalize those responsible for neglecting older adults in long-term care, and hopefully other congregate-care settings like retirement homes, seems like a necessary policy change,” he said.

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Cases are spiking, but is COVID-19 becoming less deadly in Canada? It’s complicated

By: Kelly Grant

Samir Sinha, the Director of Health Policy Research and Co-Chair of the NIA in Toronto, said Canada’s success in driving down deaths over the summer was tightly linked to keeping the virus mostly out of seniors' homes. “Are we better positioned than we were six months ago? Absolutely," Dr. Sinha said of seniors' homes, whose residents account for about three-quarters of the Canadians killed by COVID-19. “We’re all getting a bit tired of physically distancing. We may not be as vigilant in donning and doffing our PPE because, frankly, things have been okay for a while. This is where we get lax and COVID invades."

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Ontario long-term-care homes could face brutal 2nd wave of COVID-19, doctor warns

As COVID-19 cases shoot up in Ontario, a geriatrician says the province is poised to repeat its first-wave mistakes in the long-term care sector. "We have the potential now to have a second wave that may eclipse the first," Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing, told CBC Toronto.

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Long-term care: 'We said we would never let this happen again'

By: Elizabeth Payne

That terrifies Dr. Nathan Stall, a geriatrician and Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing in Toronto, who has studied how COVID-19 spread through Ontario long-term care homes during the early months of the pandemic. Among his findings was that private homes tended to do worse than not-for-profit homes once COVID-19 made its way in.

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Renewed fears of outbreaks in long-term care homes

COVID-19 hit Canada’s long-term care homes hard, with many becoming epicentres of deadly outbreaks. Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research and Co-Chair of the NIA in Toronto, speaks with Global National.

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'Running on fumes': Amid rising COVID cases, health workers struggle with fatigue, lack of support

"The COVID narrative and the COVID experience was very different than what we all had anticipated," said Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing, recalling what felt like a "call to arms" in March and April with people banging pots and pans on balconies and cheering front-line workers. But that's all gone, according to Stall, who said there's now a greater resistance in society towards some of the public health restrictions that will need to be re-implemented.

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Advocates sound alarms as long-term care homes see COVID-19 cases rise

By: Avis Favaro, Elizabeth St. Phillip and Graham Slaughter

Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the National Institute on Ageing in Toronto, said the current outbreaks are a reminder of just how quickly COVID-19 can spread, particularly among vulnerable seniors. “Long-term care actually isn't getting the spotlight I would argue it deserves. We have 20 homes under active outbreaks in the province, and these things spread like wildfire,” he said.

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Grandparents Day 2020: 5 tips for a safe grandparent-grandchild visit

By: Scottie Andrew

We talked to Dr. Samir Sinha. He's the director of Geriatrics for the Sinai Health System and the University Health Network in Toronto. Until there's a vaccine, the most vulnerable people should continue to stay home if they can.

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Dying of loneliness: Wolfville rally highlights concerns over Nova Scotia’s long-term care restrictions

By: Carole Morris-Underhill

She says not allowing family members to visit loved ones, especially since a July 2020 report by the National Institute on Aging indicates “substantial and potentially irreversible harm to the health and well-being of residents” infringes on human rights. She says it borders on elder abuse.

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Informational sessions inviting seniors to discuss issues prior to election

By: Larissa Kurz

CARP Chief Advocacy Officer Bill VanGorder, former director of Mont St. Joseph Home Brian Martin, and director of the National Institute on Ageing, Michael Nicin will join the panel to discuss the status of long term care in Saskatchewan.

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Families concerned long-term caregiver changes won’t be implemented, and N.S. can’t enforce them

By: Elizabeth McSheffery

“This is the narrowest possible interpretation of allowing in family caregivers. It appears they’ve been following a model that’s been widely criticized by experts in the field of seniors’ care,” she said, referencing recent recommendations from the National Institute on Ageing on LTCs and the pandemic.

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Building Back Better: “Rethinking social protection and the care economy”

For many, one of the greatest challenges of the pandemic lockdown has been the juggling of work and care – care for children, family members with special needs, and/ or the elderly. The crisis has shed light on the responsibility challenges families face at the best of times and the often unequal burden of care provision.

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The Risks of the Prescribing Cascade

By: Jane E. Brody

A Canadian study of 41,000 older adults with hypertension who were prescribed drugs called calcium channel blockers. Within a year after treatment began, nearly one person in 10 was given a diuretic to treat leg swelling caused by the first drug. Many were inappropriately prescribed a so-called loop diuretic that Dr. Anderson said can result in dehydration, kidney problems, lightheadedness and falls.

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School's return raises worries about exposing seniors to COVID-19

By: Andrew Lupton

Dr. Samir Sinha is the Director of Health Policy Research and Co-Chair of the NIA in Toronto. He said it's a legitimate concern that the return to school could put older relatives at risk. "The majority of the cases are in much younger populations now, and that's where we see COVID-19 spreading a little bit more frequently. “That could potentially also play a role in bringing that that back into the family and potentially harming older people in the household who might be more immuno-compromised or risk of the complications, including death."

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'Is this My Father's Home, or a Prison?': Rally Calls for Easing LTC Visitation Rules
By: Katie Hartai

The group refers to a report released by The National Institute on Ageing in July, which finds current LTC visitor policies remain overly restrictive and cause harm to the well-being of residents. It says restricted access to visiting must balance the risks of COVID-19 infection with the risks of social isolation to resident health, well-being, and quality of life.

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