Aging Issues Network – 10 Main Points

1. We need ‘senior friendly communities’ that allow seniors to stay in their own homes and age in place.
    

• Government can support aging in place through programs that help seniors with tasks such as snow removal, meal preparation, and home maintenance.
   
• Aging in place can be supported through programs that help seniors with major housing-related expenses, such as heating.
   
• Aging in place can be achieved by spending more on transit and para-transit, which let seniors travel within their communities.

2. A major expense for seniors is home maintenance and home repairs. Many seniors cannot afford to repair their homes.
    

• In order to encourage aging in place, the government needs to eliminate the waiting list for the Provincial Home Repair Program.
   
• Government needs to strengthen its commitment to the Home Repair Program and encourage more seniors to apply to the program.

3. The government needs to invest in affordable, safe, comfortable housing that is barrier-free (fully accessible) for seniors.
    

• More affordable housing for seniors needs to be created in both rural and urban areas in the province.
   
• The federal and provincial governments should work on national housing standards that would require all new homes to meet lifetime housing needs, such as level entryways, accessible bathrooms, and space for one bedroom on the main level.

4. Social connectedness is a critical element of healthy aging.
    

• To encourage connectedness, the government needs to:
   

Ø  fund and create friendly visiting schemes;
 

Ø  invest in subsidized taxi and transit programs;
 

Ø  improve ease of access to community resources;
 

Ø  support municipal recreation programs;
 

Ø  invest in seniors’ literacy; and
 

Ø  encourage seniors to age in place in their own communities.
 

• If these measures aren’t taken, seniors are much more likely to be isolated.

5. Home care is the single most critical element allowing seniors to age in the place.
    

• The government needs to invest in a publicly funded home care program that is not tied to people’s incomes.
   
• Home care must be seen as a broad range of services, including services such as oral health, nutrition, nursing, help with bathing, and occupational and physical therapy.
   
• If we continue to look at a senior’s income, some seniors will always be excluded.

6. The province needs more home care workers.
    

• Home care workers are retiring, leaving the province, or not joining the profession at all.
   
• To counter the declining number of home care workers, the government needs to pay workers in private homes the same amount that they would receive if they were working in an institution.
   
• If the government created a home care program that covered everyone, it could set equal rates of pay for care in both private homes and institutional settings.

7. The government needs to enforce standards of education for home support workers.
    

• The government has developed a training program, but it is not regularly available and it is expensive.
   
• Many home care workers are reluctant to enrol in the program, because finishing the program doesn’t lead to higher pay.
   
• Currently, individuals who work with seniors—some of the most vulnerable members of our community—are not required to have certification.
   
• We need standardized training in order to address the needs of care recipients, and to make sure that quality care is provided safely.

8. The government needs to create and fund programs that support and educate informal caregivers (such as the Caregivers Out of Isolation program).
    

• Informal caregivers, who are mostly women, often have to deal with exhaustion, social isolation, and stress as they try to care for loved ones.
   
• It is estimated that, across the country, informal caregivers contribute more than five billion dollars of unpaid labour annually.
   
• The government needs to recognize the work that informal caregivers do, and provide caregivers with respite and support options.

9. Seniors living in the province’s nursing homes currently encounter financial challenges.
    

• Newfoundland and Labrador is the only province that requires the payment of the health care portion of the accommodation.
   
• Aside from $10,000 set aside for funeral expenses, a resident must cash out all of their assets if their monthly income does not cover the costs.
   
• The Aging Issues Network calls on government to eliminate the payment of the health care portion of nursing home costs.

10. The Aging Issues Network calls on the government to release, for review, its draft Long Term Care and Community Support Services Strategy.
     

• The Strategy should look at many of the issues raised above—such as home care, help for caregivers, and long-term care.
   
• Input from groups that work directly with seniors would make for a stronger overall Strategy.