Federal long-term care investment is needed: CMA president

Criticizing the “new mediocre” of care for seniors, the president of the Canadian Medical Association today called for federal investment in both long-term care facilities and home and community programs.

The federal government must begin investing now in long-term care infrastructure and make significant new investment in in programs for home and community care, Without that investment the viability of Canada’s health care system will be threatened as the proportion of Canadians over age 65 continues to grow, Dr. Chris Simpson said in a press release.

"Much is being made of the 'new mediocre' facing world economies, but right now Canada is asking far too many seniors and their families to endure mediocre access to care," he said, commenting on the latest federal fiscal update.

"We need to start making smart investments now or health care costs will continue to grow while still failing to meet the growing and evolving needs of our aging population."

Canada needs to start spending smarter and adjusting our health care system for chronic care of the aging, he said.

"Because we are not prepared, 15 per cent of our acute-care hospital beds are occupied by people who should be either at home with support services or in long-term care," he added.

"We are warehousing seniors in hospitals at $1,000 a day when long-term care would cost $155 and home care $55. We need to spend smarter."

Simpson said he was glad to see that the fiscal update documents make note of the government's aim to retain the ability to respond to such challenges as population aging.

However, the CMA will be looking for detailed provisions in the next federal budget for enhanced senior care and continued health care improvements, he said.

Simpson added that the inability to care for seniors properly is the real reason behind long wait times. "Wait times are not the price of public health."

In Alberta, lack of continuing care beds has resulted in seniors being forced to remain in active treatment hospitals, resulting in emergency room and acute care delays.

Last month the provincial government announced it would come up with the money to open 450 existing continuing care beds and fast-track the construction of 300 more.

Critics have pointed out that the problem has existed for years and that long-term care beds, while Alberta maintains a policy of not constructing new long-term care facilities.

Canada's 5.2 million citizens over age 65 are about 15 per cent of the population and account for almost half the health costs. By 2036, those over 65 will account for almost a quarter of the population.

Polling, commissioned by the CMA, has repeatedly revealed widespread anxiety among Canadians about their future health care in their retirement years.

According to the organization, a Nanos poll conducted recently in the two Nov. 17 byelection ridings of Whitby-Oshawa and Yellowhead found that 36 per cent of respondents felt Ottawa has done a poor job in preparing for future health care needs during their retirement. Twenty-two per cent thought the federal government was doing a good or very good job.

Canada ranked among best countries for older people

Canada is among the top five best places in which to be a senior according to a ranking of 96 countries by HelpAge International.

Released today in connection with the United Nations International Day of Older Persons, the organization’s Global Age Watch Index 2014 rates the wellbeing of older people on the basis of income security, health, personal capability and enabling environments.

Norway ranks at the top of the index, followed by Sweden and Switzerland, with Canada in fourth place.  The U.S. comes in at eighth place, with the U.K. out of the top ten at number 11.

Canada rates high in all four categories, although satisfaction with the state of public transportation is lower.

Afghanistan is the worst place for an older person, according to the index, while just above it are Mozambique (95), West Bank and Gaza (94) and Malawi (93).

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

HelpAge is also taking the occasion to further its Age Demands Action campaign in support of seniors’ rights and issues, taking place in around 50 countries worldwide. Activists plan to use the index in meetings with policy makers. They are also calling for a UN convention on the rights of older people.

October 1 was designated the International Day of Older Persons by a resolution the United Nations General Assembly on December 14, 1990. The theme of the 2014 commemoration is “Leaving No One Behind: Promoting a Society for All.”

"Older persons make wide-ranging contributions to economic and social development,” stated UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “However, discrimination and social exclusion persist. We must overcome this bias in order to ensure a socially and economically active, secure and healthy ageing population."

In Canada, October 1 is also celebrated as National Seniors Day.

In a statement marking the day Minister of State (Finance) Kevin Sorenson focused on federal government moves benefiting seniors financially, including targeted tax relief, including pension income splitting and a doubling of the pension income credit eligibility level.

In addition, Sornenson highlighted plans to help older Canadians better manage their financial affairs.

“Over the last number of months, our government has been consulting on a national strategy for financial literacy, with the first phase focused on seniors,” he said. “This strategy will engage more Canadians in preparing financially for their senior years; help seniors to plan and manage their financial affairs; improve the understanding of and access to public benefits for seniors; and increase the tools to combat financial abuse. I expect to unveil this important strategy soon.”

International Day of Older Persons was also being observed with a rally in Windsor, Ontario. The event was organized by the Unifor Retired Workers Area Council, the Seniors Advisory Committee-Windsor, National Pension Reform Committee, National Pensioners Federation, CARP Windsor-Essex, Municipal Retirees Organization Ontario and Life After Fifty.

"On this day, we not only celebrate the effort of our elders to build a better society for all of us, but also commit to fight for pension and decent health care so future generations can retire with dignity," said Len Hope, chair of the Unifor Retired Workers Council Executive and member of the Unifor National Executive Board.

"Older persons are among the first to fall victim to a downturn in the economy or the effects of globalization."

Getting the word out on caregiving

Rick Lauber knows a lot about caregiving for older people and much of that knowledge is based on personal experience.

Lauber, an Edmontonian, acted as caregiver for both his mother, who had Parkinson’s disease and leukemia, and his father, an Alzheimer’s sufferer.

Since then he has been attempting to help other caregivers by sharing what he learned as a result of his experiences.

In 2010, Self-Counsel Press published his book the Caregiver's Guide for Canadians.

In the book, Lauber describes his own caregiving experiences and provides recommendations for other prospective, new and current caregivers (including adult children, friends, spouses and/or partners).

“I like to think that my book has been written from a very personal perspective,” he has said. “There are other books on the market about caregiving and a number of conditions, but a lot of them are written by professionals. So my book offers a more everyday, anecdotal experience.”

The book is intended to provide encouragement and support for caregivers, along with practical advice on how to care for elders in need. It deals with issues such as balancing caregiver responsibilities with personal life, applying for guardianship and/or trusteeship hire a professional caregiver should the need arise and when a move to assisted living is necessary.

The Caregiver's Guide for Canadians is available at Chapters bookstores, at Amazon.ca, and from the Self-Counsel Press web site. The price is $17.95.

In addition to promoting the book, Lauber also works to get his message about caregiving out through writing articles, giving interviews, a blog and a twitter account, @cdncaregiver.

“I do see that more resources are becoming available,” he remarked. “That’s a good thing. But I think a lot of the resources are still difficult to connect with for family caregivers. I’m not sure why, whether it’s a lack of advertising or a lack of public knowledge, but it is unfortunate because the resources are there to help.”

Senior projects tackle bullying, isolation and abuse

Bullying, social isolation and elder abuse are not what we have in mind for our latter years, but they are realities older people face.

"Bullying in senior residences is a common response when the give and take of communal living is not properly addressed,” according to Karen Sheridan of the South East Edmonton Seniors Association (SEESA).

To address the problem, the association has created the Senior to Senior Anti-Bullying project. The project recently received funding through the Government of Canada's New Horizons For Seniors Program for development an anti-bullying toolkit. The toolkit will be used to educate and equip elderly persons living in seniors' residences, as well as residences' staff to better deal with offensive behaviour and confrontation.

“SEESA began the for-seniors by-seniors project to explore how residents can co-create the kind of communities in which they want to live," said Sheridan.

Social isolation among senior caregivers is the focus of the Caregiver Connection Centre project of the Alberta Caregivers Association, which also recently received New Horizons funding. It will provide a centralized gathering place where caregivers can connect with each other for mutual support and information sharing.

“Caregiving can be a very rewarding experience, but it can also be very challenging and isolating,” said Anna Mann, executive director of the Caregivers Association. “Connecting with fellow caregivers makes a huge difference - you can almost see a burden being lifted off their shoulders."

The two Alberta organizations are receiving a total of $42,890 through the New Horizons program.

Meanwhile in Toronto, the Bernard Betel Centre is tacking the problem of elder abuse through art.  

As part of its Empowerment and Expression: Senior Voices through Art initiative,

the centre will organize town hall meetings to promote the social inclusion of seniors through art projects that will focus on elder abuse awareness.

The centre's activities include designing and creating an arts-centred elder abuse awareness curriculum based on best practices. Other activities focus on recruiting and training experienced senior volunteer artists, creating outreach materials to disseminate information about elder abuse and displaying seniors' arts projects to make them widely available to the public.

The Bernard Betel Centre was awarded $22,000 in New Horizons funding for the  project.

Memory worries prompt thousands to take online test

If you worry that your sketchy memory might be a sign of imminent Alzheimer’s disease, you are not alone.

Some 20,000 people have done an online memory test since it was launched in May by Cogniciti Inc., the company reported yesterday.
The free 20-minute assessment, available at www.cogniciti.com, is intended to help aging adults worried about their memory determine whether or not they need to discuss their concerns with a doctor.

"A great many Canadians are finding it tough to decide when to bring their memory concerns to their doctors," said Cogniciti president Mike Meagher. "Our mission with the test is to get the right people in to see the doctor and reduce unnecessary visits by the worried well."

The test was developed by clinical neuropsychologists and cognitive scientists at Baycrest Health Sciences, affiliated with the University of Toronto, and its Rotman Research Institute. Designed for adults aged 50-79, it comprises a series of game-like mental challenges that tap into memory and attention performance, including remembering the location of hidden objects and matching names to faces.

People who take the test receive an immediate brain health score upon completion to see where they rank compared to other adults with same age and education.

According to Cogniciti, the vast majority of test takers scored in the normal, healthy range for their age/education, with only two percent having below normal results.

The company also noted that 41 per cent of participants were in their 60s, 64 per cent were women, and 64 per cent had a college or university degree.

Close to one-quarter (24 per cent) of Cogniciti test takers stated on the pre-test health questionnaire that they had significant memory concerns, yet only 2.1 per cent had cognitive score results below the normal range for their age and education. This finding confirmed how widespread memory concerns are in Canada with older adults, said Meagher, and how difficult it is for most adults to determine on their own whether their forgetfulness is simply normal aging or a more serious issue.

Those who do score in the low range are encouraged to print their report and take it to their doctor to start the conversation about their memory concerns.

"For those who score poorly on the test, it doesn't necessarily mean you have dementia or Alzheimer's. Getting checked by a doctor is the best way to rule out other health problems that could be causing your cognitive issues," said Dr. Angela Troyer, program director of Neuropsychology and Cognitive Health at Baycrest, and a lead member of the project team that developed the online test.

"If it turns out that you do have a significant problem with your memory, then early diagnosis along with science-based education and interventions will help you maintain your cognitive health and independence for as long as possible, and enable you and your family to plan for the care and support you'll need in future." 
Founded in 2010 by Baycrest Health Sciences and MaRS Discovery District, Cogniciti Inc. is a for-profit company that provides brain health assessment, diagnosis, treatment and coping tools.