Examining the long term care crisis
Dr. Samir Sinha, director of health policy research at the NIA, joined a panel of experts on CTV News to examine the long term care crisis in Ontario
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The problem with profits: As Ontario’s long-term-care homes stagger under a COVID death toll of more than 3,000, some say it’s time to shut down for-profit homes for good
Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the NIA and Dr. Samir Sinha are featured in this Toronto Star feature article about Ontario's long term care homes.“There are some people who totally bristle and, I think it’s a fair perspective, at having for-profit interests in a sector that houses and cares for such vulnerable individuals. I think that’s a very fair perspective,” Stall said. “But I have always cautioned, and I’ve been lambasted for this, against oversimplifying the issue, in terms of (saying) all for-profit is bad.”
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Few long-term care homes receive public health enforcement despite climbing death-toll, Doctors for Justice in LTC, vet shortage due to pandemic pets
Dr. Samir Sinha, director of health policy research at the NIA joined the Global News Morning Show to discuss the ongoing COVID-19 crisis in Ontario's long term homes.
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Few Ontario long-term care homes receive public health enforcement
Only four out of the 32 health units that responded to queries have issued such orders since the onset of the pandemic.
“It’s concerning to me when public health seems to be leading any definitive action in these homes,” said Samir Sinha, director of health policy research at the NIA. “Why is this not happening by the group in charge of inspections and compliance?
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There’s an urgent need for leadership on our aging society
Another 4.6 million Canadians will be 65-74 and 4.2 million Canadians will be 75-84. That’s just 20 years from now, during which time the seniors population will grow from 17.5 per cent of the population to almost 25 per cent, featuring research by NIA's Director of Financial Security Research, Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald.
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Teen working in long-term-care home identified as Yassin Dabeh, a Syrian refugee who fled to Canada for a better life
By: Kenyon Wallace
Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at the Sinai Health System and University Health Network, said the vast majority of young people who get COVID-19 experience mild, asymptomatic courses. But he said there is a very small segment of young people who get serious and hard-to-treat bouts of the virus that require hospitalization.
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COVID-19 variant first seen in U.K. found in Barrie long-term care home, public health unit confirms
Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the NIA, joined CBC News. A Covid-19 outbreak at Roberta Place facility in Barrie, Ontario has spread to 127 residents, 84 staff, and 21 other individuals. 32 people have died.
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Fast-spreading COVID-19 variant tore through Barrie long-term-care home, doctor says
By: Rhythm Sachdeva & Kenyon Wallace
It’s possible that some residents of Roberta Place who were already infected may have been inadvertently vaccinated, noted Dr. Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at the Sinai Health System and University Health Network in Toronto. This is because it can take several days after infection for a positive test to show up, he said. “Right now, our rule is to say that if we think you have COVID, or you do have it, we wouldn’t actually vaccinate you. We’d wait to vaccinate you until after you’ve cleared the infection. That’s what the official guidance says,” Sinha said.
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‘A senicide’: Strategic missteps, logistical hurdles plague Ontario’s early vaccine rollout
By Andrew Russell , Carolyn Jarvis , Emanuela Campanella & Jigar Patel
For Dr. Samir Sinha, the director of geriatrics at Toronto’s Mount Sinai hospital and the University Health Network, the results have been catastrophic.
“This is what we’re calling a senicide,” Sinha told Global News. “Other countries have figured this out and realized that you probably should go and vaccinate the people with the highest risk of dying.”
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Two mobile hospital units will be deployed to the Greater Toronto Area, Trudeau says
Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at the NIA, joined CTV News to discuss the impact of COVID-19 vaccine delays
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Health, Ageing in Canada
Michael Nicin, Executive Director of Ryerson’s National Institute of Ageing explains the crisis that the long-term care system is currently experiencing as well as what this means for a growing older population.
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How paramedics can help keep older Ontarians healthy — and out of the ER
Samir Sinha, the director of health policy research at the NIA is not affiliated with CP@Clinic but says he is familiar with the program and the work community paramedics do. It and similar models, he says, have “been seen as a useful way to better support people to age in the place of their choice.”
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Speeding up vaccinations could avert a "plane crash" of long-term care deaths, commission is told
By: Elizabeth Payne
Drs. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the NIA and Alison McGeer, a clinical scientist at Mount Sinai, urged the province to reduce further deaths by working day and night to finish vaccinating long-term care residents. They recommended the province suspend other vaccinations, including second doses to hospital workers, until those are complete.
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Thousands of Albertans in private seniors’ facilities still awaiting vaccines, not atop priority lists
By: Carrie Tait
Thousands of Albertans in private seniors’ facilities still awaiting vaccines, not atop priority lists. People 65 and older living in congregate settings in Canada are 74 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than their peers living in the community, according to research conducted at the National Institute on Ageing
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Variant detected in Ontario LTC home
Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at the NIA, tells CTV that vaccines should be redirected from young, healthy front line workers to residents of long term care.
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‘A tattoo for mom?’ Ageism Unmasked
Michael Nicin, executive director of Ryerson University’s National Institute on Ageing, points out that children want their parents to live long and healthy lives. And parents are anxious not to be a burden to their children. “We are all worried about each other,” Nicin told the Globe and Mail. “We all care for each other.” He added that he expects to see a trend toward more intergenerational housing. “The more we depend on each other, and not on the state, the better off we are.”
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Speeding up Ontario’s vaccine rollout could save the lives of more than 100 residents in long-term care, Doug Ford’s science panel says
By: Kenyon Wallace
“Modelling provides specific data, but I think it’s probably intuitive to most people that the earlier we vaccinate, the more cases we prevent and the more lives we save,” said Dr. Nathan Stall, lead author of the modelling study and Associate Fellow at the NIA. “I really hope this provides the data that is needed to motivate the acceleration of the vaccine rollout.”
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Ontario could prevent hundreds of deaths if all LTC residents vaccinated by month's end: report
Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the NIA and one of the authors of the report, is critical of the province for failing to immunize every long-term care home resident in Ontario by now. "I consider this honestly to be a breathtaking failure," said Stall.
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Ontario criticized for delaying vaccine rollout for nursing-home residents
An Ontario panel says the province failed residents of long-term care homes by not prioritizing them for COVID-19 vaccinations and the decision cost hundreds of lives. Dr. Nathan Stall, Associate Fellow at the NIA, speaks with CBC National.
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'This has to be the variant,' Barrie, Ont. long-term care home saw 55 COVID-19 cases in 2 days9
Geriatrician Dr. Samir Sinha told CP24 it is likely up to a third of those residents infected at Roberta Place will die. "On average 1 in 3 of them will end of up dead, there will probably will end up being 30 to 40 people dead by the end of this."