Canada Will Soon Become a ‘Super Aged’ Country. Here’s Why That’s a Problem

Older adults are facing a bleak future unless Canadian governments dramatically shift their approach to long-term care, says a new report from the National Institute on Ageing.

The third and final report in the NIA’s “road map” for improved long-term-care services — with an emphasis on community supports over traditional nursing homes — says staffing shortages, funding shortfalls and a rapidly aging population created a dire situation, which the pandemic exposed and exacerbated.

The final report, released Thursday, is titled “Enabling a More Promising Future for Long-Term Care in Canada.” It calls for a new approach that includes a strong focus on community-based long-term-care services, with institutional care as the “exception.”

It recommends policies focused on evidence-based, person-centred care; technologies that support what the NIA calls “Ageing in the Right Place”; and a solution to the current staffing shortages by offering jobs that are “appropriately supported and recognized.”

“It is clear,” the most recent report says, “that without a paradigm shift in the way Canada finances, organizes and delivers LTC services, the challenges will only continue to prevent (or block the road to) the sustainable and fiscally responsible provision of high-quality LTC services.

“Therefore, there is no time like the present to move forward with a balanced approach towards enabling a more promising future for the provision of LTC in Canada.”

Dr. Samir Sinha, the NIA’s director of health policy research, said the final report in the NIA’s long-term-care trilogy makes clear that the current path forward is “completely unsustainable and will not meet the needs of current or future older Canadians.”

It’s all about demographics.

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