CBC News highlights the role of Ontario’s rapidly growing Supports at Home Program (link), which was announced by the Ford government in December 2020. The program allows Seniors with significant needs, who would otherwise be sent to a nursing home, to receive the support that they need at home. You can read the full article here (link).

As COVID-19 has wreaked havoc in nursing homes over the past year, much attention, as the article notes, has been placed on the benefit of increased homecare investment in Canada. While the Program has been heralded by healthcare providers, it has been criticized by others as masking a wider problem, the lack of government investment in programs supporting the needs of seniors at home. As noted by the article, it is the lack of community supports that forces seniors to move into long-term care, putting further strain on already overpopulated nursing homes.

At the national level, the federal government has committed to the development of a framework on national standards for long-term care (link). National standards would be an improvement in that it would require a minimum level of services. However, if there is no enforcement of those standards or those standards are set too low, the standards will be essentially meaningless. Bakerlaw will be keeping a close eye on this development.