Position paper developed at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Provides an overview of long-term care, and a call for radical reformation: a new ecology of care in Canada.
The COVID-19 pandemic is revealing both significant strengths and weaknesses across every sector of society. Canada has long prided itself for its observance of human rights and its global ranking as being #1 in the world for quality of life. How then is Canada holding the record amongst similarly developed countries for the highest death rate amongst older adults living in long-term care facilities? By late fall 2020 long-term care and retirement homes reported12%of the Canadian totals of COVID-19 cases and75%of total deaths.
To understand how we have reached this horrific point, it’s necessary that we analyze the culture and system of long-term care in Canada since its inception.
