“Being able to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 within a year is frankly a miracle of science, and it’s a gift that we shouldn’t squander,” said Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research. “The sooner we all get vaccinated, and we reach a vaccinated level of herd immunity we’ll have our freedom again as Canadians.”
Read More“If we need to create PSWs and do so quickly, then an accelerated program makes sense. But the more fundamental reasons we have a national shortage are that this work is largely unregulated and not well-paid,” says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
Read MoreBoth the National Institute on Ageing and the Ontario Community Support Association recommend supporting people in their own homes rather than creating temporary solutions until older adults locate a space in a care home.
Read MoreMore Canadians are rethinking where they want to live in their old age after seeing the devastating impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on seniors’ living facilities across the country.
A survey released last autumn by the National Institute on Ageing at Ryerson University shows that almost seven in 10 respondents aged 65 and over prefer to age in their home – and have health care professionals come to them – in light of the pandemic’s impact on seniors’ living facilities.
The COVID-19 Visit Risk Calculator is an online tool that helps you answer the important question: Is this gathering I have planned to attend actually safe?
According to a recent press release, more than 120,000 Canadians have used the three-minute risk calculator to assess their gatherings so far.
Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research, said they listen to the feedback they receive, and wanted to tailor this fall update to the concerns that people have currently, regarding back to school, larger gatherings and the rise of the Delta variant.
“A massacre” is what took place in LTC facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research. “This is a pan-Canadian issue, so I’m glad the federal government started taking an interest in providing leadership in this space, even though this is not traditionally an area of federal jurisdiction.”
Read More“I think the biggest challenge with the provision of long-term care in Canada is that compared to other countries from around the world, we grossly underfund the system that we actually have,” says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research. This means that not only are there not enough beds, but the facilities are underfunded too — resulting in worse care for residents, he added.
Read More"When we created Medicare in 1966 across Canada, the average Canadian was 27 years of age, and all we thought we would need is to treat a young society, unlike other countries around the world, where they realized they would age, and that medication coverage and long-term care are needed."
"So now we have this lopsided universal care system that is a partnership between the federal and provincial government that just excludes something that more and more of us are going to need over time," says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
"If you look at a recent survey commissioned by the National Institute on Ageing, 96% of Canadians over 65 would do everything they can to avoid moving into a nursing home. Homecare is the forgotten stepson/stepdaughter of Canadian healthcare. We need to keep seniors at home by providing homecare resources, which is not only what seniors want in this country, it's also extremely cost effective when you compare it to long-term care expenditures," says Dr. Bob Bell, NIA Senior Fellow and former Deputy Minister of Health and Long-term Care in Ontario.
Read MoreDr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Policy Research, agreed that developing national standards for long-term care is a step in the right direction, and that this enforcement needs to be properly funded.
They also both highlighted that what’s missing from parties’ proposals is the funding necessary to properly fix systemic issues in long-term care, like the shortage of beds, workers, workers’ pay and proper home care.
"When we've looked at our vaccine rollouts, we know that some jurisdictions were much more efficient to get their most vulnerable populations, those particularly living in our long-term care homes. Some jurisdictions took a lot longer than others, including Ontario. Every day you delay an opportunity for someone to get vaccinated, you're delaying that person's ability to protect themselves," says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
Read MoreQ: My son and daughter-in-law are not vaccinated. My husband and I are in our 70s. We are both fully vaccinated. Is it safe for them to visit and come for dinner?
It depends, said Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research. “We know that these unvaccinated folks, they might be asymptomatic, but they may still be able to easily transmit the virus to their loved ones,” he said.
He recommends looking at an online tool developed by the National Institute on Ageing that will walk you through the risks of a given social situation.
“Accidents can happen to anyone, even to healthy and flexible people in their fifties, so it’s important to be prepared and think ahead in the event of a fall or other accident,” says Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research at the National Institute on Ageing. “Yet more than 30 per cent of older Canadians report not being prepared to manage medical emergencies when alone.”
Read MoreDr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research, said the issue of a third COVID-19 vaccine dose treaded on “complicated territory,” as many countries were still trying to access limited supplies to vaccinate their population with a first and second dose.
Read MoreThe ability to swallow is something most of us take for granted; however, in older adults, it can become a serious and life-threatening problem if it's impaired and nor properly addressed. Swallowing disorders, also called dysphagia, can affect up to 30% of older adults. Further, it’s now considered a geriatric syndrome by many experts due to its growing prevalence and health impact in older adults.
Read MoreIn Ontario, for example, all long-term care homes are paid the same by the province, regardless of ownership, said Dr. Robert Bell Ontario’s deputy minister of health and long-term care from 2014 to 2018, and NIA Senior Fellow.
“The amount the taxpayer pays for the long-term-care home, it’s the same whether it’s for-profit or not for-profit,” he explained.
“Iceland is one of the worst-performing countries in the world in how it allocates funding for the care of the elderly. 92 percent of the funding is put into warehousing older people in nursing homes—at nursing homes that now say they don’t have enough money to provide that care,” says Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research, NIA.
Read MoreHundreds of homes across Canada did not fare that well, as ineffective infection control measures, low standards of care, and in many cases, low wages for staff, had devastating consequences. More than 55,000 residents and more than 29,000 long-term care workers have been infected with COVID-19.
The Ryerson University National Institute on Aging has tracked 15,217 COVID-19 deaths among long-term care residents since March 2020, 57 per cent of all deaths from the pandemic in Canada to date.
On August 20, Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research was invited by Iceland's Minister of Health to deliver a Keynote Address at Iceland's Annual Health Congress on developing a new vision for health care for the elderly. Dr. Sinha presented on 'Enabling Improved Patient, Provider and System Outcomes through an Advanced Care for Elders (ACE) Strategy, followed by a fireside chat conversation with some of Iceland's leading health professionals.
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