Report Title
Pandemic Perspectives on Ageing in Canada in Light of COVID-19: Findings from a National Institute on Ageing/TELUS Health National Survey
The COVID-19 pandemic has been having a disproportionate effect on the health and well-being of older Canadians. Approximately, 80% of COVID-19 deaths in Canada have occurred amongst older Canadians in long-term care settings like nursing and retirement homes. For the majority of older Canadians who live in their own homes, concerns about social isolation, receiving appropriate and timely care, and maintaining one’s independence have heightened in part due to recommended restrictions on non-essential social interactions, which are expected to persist to some extent for the foreseeable future.
Special Report: Ageing Well: Policy Implications of Changing Demographics and Increasing Longevity in UK and Canada
In November 2019, the NIA joined some of the foremost experts on ageing in Canada and the UK met at Cambridge University in the UK to discuss the challenges of ageing well. This report by Professor Ashwin Kumar from the Canada-UK Colloquium looks at the findings on ageing in Canada and the UK, sets out the main points made in the discussions, and the recommendations that emerged.
Improving Canada’s Retirement Income System
This discussion paper on Canada’s retirement income system, authored by Keith Ambachtsheer and Michael Nicin, identifies the key challenges and opportunities to addressing and improving retirement prospects for Canadians. The paper outlines three broad priorities: 1) Increase pension coverage for Canadians without a pension plan; 2) Increase savings rates for middle-income earners; 3) Increase incentives and opportunities for people to work at older ages, as life expectancy increases.
The Future Co$t of Long-Term Care in Canada
This second paper in the NIA’s 2019 policy series on the future of long-term care by Dr. Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, Dr. Michael Wolfson, and Dr. John Hirdes, builds on Statistics Canada’s population microsimulation model to project the future costs of long-term care in Canada to both the public purse as well as the care support provided to Canadian seniors by their families.
Enabling the Future Provision of Long-Term Care in Canada
This inaugural paper in the NIA’s 2019 policy series on the future of long-term care explores the current landscape of the full range of long-term care services across Canada to determine how Canadians can be best supported to age with greater quality of life, better health outcomes, and dignity through appropriate models of care and support and best practices.
Filling the Cracks in Pension Coverage: Introducing Workplace Tax-Free Pension Plans
This paper proposes workplace Tax-Free Pension Plans (TFPPs) as an option for improving pension plan coverage in Canada.
As One of Canada’s Top Killers, Why Isn’t Pneumonia Taken More Seriously?
A new report from the National Institute on Ageing at Ryerson University finds pneumonia to be the leading cause of preventable death in Canada and calls for urgent action to address low vaccination rates.
Special Report: The Value of a Good Pension - How to Improve the Efficiency of Retirement Savings in Canada
Retirement is one of life’s biggest expenses. Yet while there has been vigorous debate about whether Canadians are saving enough for retirement, there has been much less discussion of how they are saving. This study compares the efficiency of a variety of approaches to retirement, from a typical individual approach to a large-scale “Canada model” pension plan, as well as a variety of models in between. This study is a research project completed by Common Wealth for the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), with support from the NIA.
Special Report: Toronto Social Capital Study
“Social capital” is the term used to describe the vibrancy of social networks and the extent to which there is trust and reciprocity within a community and among individuals. The NIA partnered with the Toronto Foundation and other leading civic organizations on a new research initiative led by the Environics Institute to map the level of social trust and community engagement among Toronto residents, and provide a foundation for strengthening the social capital of the city.
We Can’t Address What We Don’t Measure Consistently: Building Consensus on Frailty in Canada
More than 1 million Canadians are living with frailty, but there is no agreement among health care providers on how to measure it. The NIA examines the impact of frailty in Canada, and urges for research and health care communities to build consensus on how to measure and manage it.
Why Canada Needs to Better Care for Its Working Caregivers
More than 8 million Canadian caregivers are keeping our health care systems afloat, 30 per cent of whom are “sandwich generation” women.
The Underappreciated Burden of Influenza Amongst Canada’s Older Population. And What We Need to Do About It.
Fewer than a third of all Canadians get the flu vaccine each year and fewer than two-thirds of seniors get the vaccine. Canada is falling far short of the immunization rates needed to protect the broader population, according to a new report by the National Institute on Ageing (NIA), at Ryerson University.
An Evidence-Informed National Seniors Strategy for Canada
The way we approach our coming of age will also require coordination and mobilization across government departments as well as between the private and public sectors. Indeed, many are now seeing the need for an integrated approach where the federal government could help keep us all moving in the right direction. As a result, many see that implementing a National Seniors Strategy could provide us exactly the focus and commitment we need to ensure Canada can become the best country to grow up and grow old in.