The pandemic was devastating for our elders; especially the first wave. Harrowing stories and a tsunami of covid-19 positive cases translated into thousands of deaths and a difficult wake-up call regarding elder care. Reports were commissioned across Canada (B.C. reports and Ontario reports) in order to take stock of what happened and, hopefully, build a better future. The pandemic was a wake-up call but key elements in building such a future were already present before the pandemic hit.
Elder care is the fastest growing segment in health care and it represents sixty percent (60%) of health care costs to our systems. We live longer lives and medical progress has a pace that keeps pushing the boundaries of what we can hope for. This means that the care required for our elders to be appropriately cared for is increasingly multidimensional and complex. Even illnesses such as cancer that have historically been considered as terminal are now growingly joining the ranks of treatable chronic illnesses. Elder care is probably one of the most prominent challenges we face as a society to maintain and improve our health systems given that the growth rate of the needs seems to outpace our capacity to adapt, adjust and improve. Are there solutions looming? Let’s take a closer look.
In a recent report from which the chart below was taken, the Canadian Government reported that the population of Canadians over 65 years of age will grow to 9,5M by 2030, which will represent 23% of the population. In 2014, only 6M Canadians were 65 years of age or older, which represented 15,6% of the Canadian population. Even though these numbers may not be as striking to the broad public as they are to the experts, this represents a very significant demographic shift in the population in a very short period of time. No doubt that pressure on the health systems will continue to build up and especially with respect to the elder care programs we have in place. More and more and more will be needed.
It is clear that health systems are faced with a significant challenge to adapt to the growing needs of our aging population. For decades, elder care was mainly limited to having long term care programs and facilities that would care for aging people with diminishing autonomy based on the number of hours of care required. The pandemic shed light on the fact that this type of care needs to be revisited and improved. It was an eye-opening event that not only calls upon us to revisit long term care programs but also to look at the heavy trend of increasing needs that we face as a society. We need to take a hard look at our health systems and help them adapt, drive innovation and create new programs all while revamping historical ones that have remained marginal until today.
For instance, home and community-based care constitute important pillars for new, more flexible and adapted solutions. Families, friends and the elders themselves need to part of future solutions. It won’t be easy to adapt and adjust the health systems in order to be able to meet the growing needs and offer proper care to all. In a strong sense, we are entering a phase of unrest, disruption and challenges regarding elder care. It is very much an adolescence phase that will not be easy but that will likely yield new ideas to do things differently, to build a new future. Any adolescence phase goes through its difficulties but we should see it as stimulating as this is the opportunity to help shape the next generation, which is usually better than the preceding one. It should be the same for the adolescence of elder care. And so many issues need to be explored and worked on. Digging deeper will certainly unearth more challenges. But these are different stories and good ones for other articles…
In the meantime, may you be well, may you be happy.
B.
REFERENCES / ARTICLES OF INTEREST:
https://news.gov.bc.ca/files/1.25.2021_LTC_COVID-19_Response_Review.pdf
http://www.ltccommission-commissionsld.ca/report/pdf/20210623_LTCC_AODA_EN.pdf