Aging seniors and
their families are faced by the complexity of issues facing the elderly. Not
only do older people have to contend with declining income, increased debt
and poor investment returns, but they have to deal with declining health,
medical crises, complex insurance programs, long term care challenges,
who-gets-what decisions, end-of-life, where to live in their final years and a
whole range of other difficult situations requiring hard decisions.
1. Health Care
including Dementia and other cognitive impairments; lack of Doctors, Social
Workers and others trained in how to treat or deal with Geriatricians; Health
Accord Funding, and the lack of a National Phamacare programme; the
sustainability of medicare, and the issue of end of life care.
2. Poverty among
Seniors, including Seniors Housing, and Pension Reform
The biggest
challenges any community faces with regard
to caring for the aging are (1) the lack of awareness and connection to
existing systems and supports; (2) the lack of coordination among many existing
programs and resources; and (3) the fact that we tend to age differently based
on our demographics, environment, formative experiences, and lifestyle.
Our structural
orientation towards aging can assign resources in ways that do not always
address the highest need. Aging is a process, not a number. Age is as much
social as it is biological, and how we age affects our relationships and the
ways we think about ourselves and how we think about our place in society.
As we age, the
realities of our changing ability to engage the social and physical world affect
us all. There is a need for investments to address seniors’ access to places,
assistance, and resources. This includes improving how older adults learn about
and approach the existing network of support and how they are thereby able to access
physically services and amenities throughout the community. Connecting more
seniors to the resources that are already available will make an immediate
quality of life impact within the community, and will help reduce long-term
crisis intervention and chronic illness costs.
At the local and
provincial level, agencies and groups working with seniors could provide new
and more efficient ways to help seniors and their caregivers navigate through
existing programs and resources. This would make a distinct impact for seniors
almost immediately.
Community
investments can improve how senior advocates and stakeholders coordinate and
collaborate across domains and providers. Streamlining the provision of
services and the interaction among service providers could make a tremendous
long-term holistic impact, leading to a reduction in costs associated with
crisis intervention.
One way many
seniors can be involved in the community is by volunteering. A large
percentage of seniors want to be active and engaged in their community. In
Canada, thirty-six percent of seniors perform volunteer work, with volunteers
over 65 contributing about 223 hours a year, compared to the national average
of 156 hours. In fact, in 2012, baby boomers and senior adults contributed more
than 1 billion volunteer hours. Governments at all levels and community groups
should be working together to support programs
and initiatives to encourage and recognize volunteer work by seniors.
The most
significant issue facing geriatric medicine right now is that we have an inadequate
supply of clinicians who are trained to meet the demands of the aging baby
boomers. We do not train nearly enough geriatricians to care for this growing
aging population. This is an issue because seniors are living longer and
healthier lives than previous generations. Between 2014 and 2036, the average
life expectancy for a 65-year-old in
Canada is projected to increase by 1.8 years for women (to 88.8 years) and by
1.9 years for men (to 86.5 years).
Despite this
increased longevity, recent statistics tell us that 90 percent of Canadians
aged 65 and over live with at least one chronic disease or condition, such as
cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory conditions, diabetes, dementia, arthritis,
or obesity. Chronic health conditions require more focus than ever before to
ensure effective health care support and good health management. In fact, the Alzheimer
Society of Canada has estimated that, in 2011, as many as 747 000 Canadians
were living with Alzheimer's or related dementias, and that by 2031, this
figure could increase to 1.4 million.
There is an issue
of ageism. We all have innate prejudices, and we are surrounded by negative
stereotypes of the elderly in the media. Many people think of old people as
being crippled in nursing homes. Many physicians, who do not know that much
about aging, assume every complaint from an older person is simply because they
are getting older. We need to educate physicians, including internists who are
not specializing in geriatrics; about what are really just age related issues
and :
- What
is a disease
- What
is correctable
- What
is preventable
If we are to honour
our seniors we should act on the following principles:
Promote
Independence, not isolation
Programs and
initiatives that support independent living must do so without contributing to
isolation. Helping seniors to remain at their current address is only a
positive investment until it begins to limit their access to food, medical
care, and active living. Making investments that help seniors age where they
want to age, and to do so in the context of a supportive community, are as
equally important as investing in “aging in place.”
Value Seniors as
Assets not liabilities
Valuing seniors as
community assets rather than just service-users opens up an array of
possibilities for leveraging investments by funding senior programs that
provide opportunities for seniors to invest in the lives of others. As seniors
are increasingly valued as a community resource, investments in seniors will
begin to make an impact in the lives of other seniors and younger generations in
whom seniors invest their time.
Work on Early
Intervention not late
Preventing
injuries, illnesses, and crises in the life of older adults is important to
maintaining quality of life as well as improving cost savings for seniors and
local support systems. Investments that help prevent falls, malnourishment, and
other costly and potentially deadly outcomes are simultaneously economical and
empathetic. More broadly, since life expectancy and vulnerability vary across
the county (and by race and gender in particular), current benefit eligibility
standards for older adults as defined by the ages of 60, 62, and 65 may prove
to be too late for some seniors
Some Resources for
Seniors in Canada
Sources:
