Stop ‘warehousing’ seniors and build small homes for long-term care: aging institute
In a report released last week, the National Institute on Ageing called on all levels of government to make small care homes the standard across Canada, pointing to a survey it did in 2021 that found nearly all respondents said they’d “do everything they could” to avoid living in an LTC home.
Co-author Dr. Samir Sinha said that since it’s not realistic for all seniors to remain in their own homes, the next best thing would be better quality long-term care in home-like settings — especially since the majority of residents are likely to have some form of cognitive impairment.
“When you start thinking about what’s ideal for a person living with dementia, it’s not living on a unit with 32 other people and staff … a whole bunch of different faces all the time,” said Sinha, a geriatric specialist at Sinai Health in Toronto and the NIA’s director of health policy research.
