Toward an Integrated Strategy for Care in the Home for Frail Elders

Abstract

Canada requires a strategic plan to care for frail elders in the home. The nation needs a holistic system that addresses the multiple, often unique and dynamic needs of seniors, caregivers and families. This essay introduces ethical, technological and stakeholder engagement considerations that may help Canada move forward with a strategy that offers the capacity to better understand the perspectives of different stakeholders and champions high-quality homecare services. Stakeholder engagement can draw on the concept of brokered dialogue (Parsons and Lavery 2012) as a way to study and ethically design a high-quality national homecare strategy.

From the Editors

“…Neil is also known for his work as founder of RIWI, a data solutions company, and has written extensively about healthcare. For his first HQ column, he has chosen to tackle the topic of home care as it relates to the crisis in elder care (Seeman 2022). He explores the challenges of the current system from the perspective of different stakeholders and discusses what should be included in a five-year integrated plan that would address the changes that are critically needed.…”

“…In this edition of HQ we highlight key themes related to equity and the social determinants of health, improving access to care, engaging with patients and families and supporting research. In addition to our regular contributions from our colleagues at ICES and Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), we are also pleased to introduce a new column from Neil Seeman (2022), who has chosen to focus his first contribution on the critical topic of home care and elder care.…”

Intergenerational Civics Programs to Combat Structural Ageism in Canada

“…Recognizing ageism is the first step to combatting it. By expunging it, we would see improvement in certain health system challenges previously noted in this column (Seeman 2022(Seeman , 2023: the social isolation of our elderly, a lack of options for those wanting to age at home and the shearing of our healthcare workforce.…”