The significant increase in the population of seniors means it is more important than ever to make adaptations to physical environments and transportation so that they are accessible to people with differing levels of independence and who use mobility aids such as walkers, wheelchairs, scooters and canes.

Thanks to a Healthy Canadians Grant, Pilgrims Hospice in Edmonton, Alberta, is expanding their popular Adult Respite Day Program with a new initiative focused on providing care for seniors suffering from dementia.

Alzheimer’s disease and dementia rob those affected of their most precious possession — their memories. A new project funded in part by a Healthy Canadians Grant aims to improve memory recall in seniors living with these conditions by allowing them to virtually visit familiar places from their past.

Supporting caregivers and the vital role they play in home care across Canada was the focus of a conference held recently in Toronto by the Canadian Home Care Association and its affiliate Carers Canada.

Our contributing editor for Fall Prevention Month, Dr. Eoghan O’Shea, attended a long-term care conference on behalf of the CMA from Nov. 14 to 16; he heard presentations relating to the intersection between the different facets of long-term care and fall prevention.

Canadian Association on Gerontology 2018 — Making It Matter: Mobilizing Aging Research, Practice & Policy

This list of fall prevention resources was compiled by Dr. Eoghan O’Shea as part of his collaboration with Demand a Plan for Fall Prevention Month

Many things can contribute to a person’s risk of falling. But what are some of the steps we can take to reduce those risks?

Take a look at this infographic to learn common causes of falls, and some easy things you can do to reduce your risk!

Fall prevention awareness is essential for anyone living with frailty – and those who assist and care for them.

Many people might not consider the occasional fall to come with too many risks,but for seniors, the consequences can be serious.

Patients and caregivers can ask their doctor, nurse or pharmacist for a medication review. Use the 5 Questions to Ask About Your Medications to guide your conversation.

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) and its’ campaign Demand a Plan are proud to participate in Canadian Patient Safety Week 2018, taking place from October 29th to November 2nd.

Many seniors in our communities are isolated and don’t have access to nutritious foods.

By now everyone has read, seen or heard the statistics surrounding seniors. Centenarians are the largest growing population segment in Canada, followed closely by seniors over age 85.

For many Canadians, a bout of the flu is an inconvenience; perhaps even representing some downtime to be pampered by a partner and binge on Netflix for a day or two. But for Canada’s 5.9 million seniors, influenza can pose a serious health threat.

Imagine walking around the world without ever leaving your hometown.

For many people, animals are an important part of their lives. For seniors, especially those who are socially isolated or living in nursing homes, hospitals or retirement residences, animals can provide comfort and companionship, reduce stress and promote a sense of joy and well-being.

More and more women are facing the realities of aging alone, but this doesn’t have to be a negative thing.

Enter our Seniors Day contest!

Being an informal caregiver requires devotion and involves a great deal of sacrifice and stress. More often than not, the brunt of that responsibility, sacrifice and stress falls to women.

Hearing loss is one of the most prevalent chronic conditions affecting Canadians over the age of 65, and the number of older Canadians with hearing loss is growing fast.

The reality is that many eye diseases have no symptoms and a verdict of 20/20 vision doesn’t necessarily mean all is well.

In Surrey, British Columbia, plans are underway to build a long-term care home that provides services for members of the “aging and diverse multicultural population” who are unable to care for themselves.

In Toronto, an elderly widow decided it might be a good idea to get a roommate; so, she opened her doors to young strangers — mostly international students.

Walk a mile in Ben's shoes and see the importance of age-friendly cities.

Launched in 2015, the RISE campaign exists to help Canadians of all ages and in all regions gain a greater awareness of the impact of loneliness and isolation on older citizens.

Alongside more than 700 physicians and health stakeholders, the patient group took part in two days of presentations and panels related to this year’s theme: innovation in health care.

Transportation presents seniors and their caregivers with more than a few challenges

Alzheimer’s disease is a devastating, yet enigmatic illness that affects hundreds of thousands of Canadians and even more people worldwide. There is no cure, no way to halt its attack on the brain, and very little that can be done to predict who might acquire the disease and why.

A livestream will be available on the Health Summit website starting at 7 am CDT (local Winnipeg time) on Monday, August 20 so you can watch the sessions in real time!

As a student in the MD/Phd program at the University of British Columbia, where he is pursuing a medical degree and has completed his PhD in engineering, Edgcumbe has helped develop many new medical technologies: an augmented-reality display of ultrasound images to help surgeons better “see” patients’ organs, and the pico lantern, a device that maps and projects a patient’s tumor(s) and blood vessels – in 3D – onto their body during surgery.

On July 18, 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named Hamilton West MP Filomena Tassi as Canada’s new Minister of Seniors. The portfolio dedicated to seniors that Tassi is in charge of is a new, welcome addition to cabinet for long-time seniors’ advocates – including the CMA and Demand a Plan.

After a year in the Netherlands, working as “Innovation Sherpa in Chief” at the REShape Health Innovation Centre, Zayna Khayat returned to Canada in January with a fresh perspective on what that future could look like.

Imagine being trapped. Reliving your darkest moments, over and over. Being isolated. No one to talk to, to break the cycle of darkness. For most of us, it’s a terrifying thought. But for many of the hundreds of thousands of seniors living with dementia, this is the reality.

In October 2017, the Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre (Perley Rideau), together with The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) and the Champlain Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), launched a pilot project to assist elderly patients who no longer require hospital care but are not yet well enough to return home.

The federal government has created a new cabinet post for seniors, fulfilling one of the key recommendations in the CMA’s seniors care campaign.

On July 24, CMA President Dr. Laurent Marcoux was in New York City to support the creation a new UN convention on the rights of older persons and to advocate for Canada to champion its adoption.

On June 20, 2018, the federal government responded to a report by the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities (the HUMA Committee) entitled Advancing Inclusion and Quality of Life for Seniors in which they addressed six of the HUMA Committee’s recommendations in the report related to income security, housing, home care, informal caregivers, age-friendly communities and a national seniors care strategy.

Your support led to action!

As life expectancies are much longer now and when people retire they often have several decades of life ahead of them.

Your life shouldn’t stop when you become a senior, or when you retire; you should be able to remain actively and meaningfully engaged with the world.

Many Canadians age into disability, meaning that they will acquire conditions and limitations as they grow old. But what of seniors who age with a disability?

Silver Alert operates in a similar way to the AMBER Alert system for missing children but instead broadcasts alerts for missing adults who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia.

The Canadian Frailty Network (CFN) is Canada’s leading network for seniors living with frailty. But the CFN takes great care to make it clear that frailty and age are not interchangeable terms, discussing how complex the issue is and how proactive efforts can help in caring for the frail population.

On Friday, June 8, the CMA took part in the 7th annual Age Well Solutions conference in Ottawa, along with 31 exhibitors.

LGBT seniors say going into residential care can feel like going back in the closet. What are ways to address concerns about being out and open in a residential care setting?

On June 4, 2018, the Quebec government released its second five-year action plan to support active aging in the province.

Former CMA president Dr. Chris Simpson publishes article on the wait time problem in Canadian health care; stresses the effect on seniors.

Pharmacare is once again on the national agenda, with the parliamentary health committee issuing its report on the topic, and the Liberal government launching a federal advisory council on a national pharmacare plan.

The Duma family and Dr. Cargill are devoted advocates, raising awareness about necessary access to palliative care for so many patients who cannot wait three months.

Are you interested in being a part of a vibrant patient group?

A new Alberta law titled The Resident and Family Councils Act, in effect as of Apr. 1, 2018, will give seniors living in long-term care and licensed supportive living facilities the right to establish self-governing resident and family councils.

Quebec is addressing the rise in senior abuse with new legislation that streamlines the process for complainants, with one consolidated committee handling complaints to ensure a quicker and more effective response.

Healthy Canadians Grants to support seniors health in its first year.

Quebec government has tightened regulations in residences that house elderly people with significant loss of autonomy, while softening standards in institutions for more autonomous people.

When home care providers are not available, who can patients turn to? In Prince Edward Island, paramedics are helping to fill in the gaps.

A new white paper, Why Canada Needs to Better Care for Its Working Caregivers, produced by the National Institute of Ageing (NIA) at Ryerson University, examines the financial, social and personal health burdens borne by caregivers in Canada.

The Canadian Medical Association’s (CMA’s) newest patient engagement initiative, the CMA Patient Voice aims to further enhance our ability to advocate for a healthy population and a vibrant profession.

On Mar. 29, 2018, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities (the HUMA Committee) presented a report titled Advancing Inclusion and Quality of Life for Seniors in the House of Commons.

On Feb. 23, 2018, the face of the National Seniors Council was renewed with the appointment of a new chair and four new members.

Ontario’s Prescott and Russell area is already set to expand their paramedic home care program in July 2018.

In 2017, The Commonwealth Fund published an international report on seniors health care across 11 developed countries.

Elderly seniors in Quebec’s long-term care (LTC) facilities are growing in number but receiving less care than in the past because of staff shortages caused, in part, by the difficulty in recruiting personnel.

A unique health care project in the province of Quebec, where nurses pay daily visits to sick seniors in their homes, is having clear results: two out of every three patients who have participated in the project have been able to avoid unnecessary hospital emergency admissions.

In early 2018, CAPA published a position statement encouraging the provinces to introduce valuable solutions like PAs into its senior care strategies.

A note from CMA President Laurent Marcoux to Nova Scotia Physician. As printed in the March 2018 issue of doctorsNS.

More than 2,000 Canadians with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who took part in the INSPIRED collaboration have endured 64% fewer hospital readmissions and 53% fewer emergency department visits since the program launched in 2014–15.

British Columbia (BC) recently undertook Canada’s most exhaustive survey of seniors living in long-term care (LTC) facilities, highlighting the province’s commitment to quality of care for this vulnerable sector of the population.

Pressure is mounting on governments to boost home care funding, with Home Care Ontario recently calling for $600 million in additional annual funding for home care service providers.

Finding a retirement residence can be an overwhelming process for seniors and their adult children. As such, more businesses are beginning to offer advisory services and counsel to assist families with this major life transition.

When the subject is cancer, the news is seldom good. But one key positive fact that can be drawn from a new report by Cancer Care Ontario is that cancer survival has improved for people diagnosed between ages 60 and 79.

Facing the challenge of an aging population, BC’s General Practices Service Committee instituted a residential care initiative aimed at enabling physicians to develop local, scalable and sustainable solutions.

In early 2017, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) was dealing with a situation common in cities across Canada; 78 of the city’s hospital beds were occupied by people waiting for spaces to open up in nursing homes. This is how they changed that.

When it comes to finding supportive housing, affordability can be an enormous challenge for seniors.

Consensus is often hard to come by in these binary times, but there is a health care issue on which both the general Canadian public and health professionals agree: the need for patient-centred care.

A shuttered Toronto hospital has reopened to provide specialist care for 150 alternative-level-of-care (ALC) patients transitioning out of area hospitals.

Our Demand a Plan campaign has officially hit the 60,000 supporter mark!

Visualizing the costs of an aging population.

One of Quebec’s most successful and unique seniors’ community services organizations started life in 1973 as a neighbourhood initiative launched by a small group of academics and locals concerned with the quality of life of seniors in their area.

In a year when Canada passed a demographic milestone, Canadian supporters of improved care for seniors made their voices heard loud and clear. Combined, these events made 2017 a year to remember.

This year, “Home for the Holidays” has a different meaning for Grandma and Katie.

It’s a story that’s become all too common – Canadian seniors can’t get the care they need at home and are forced to leave. As part of a national seniors plan, we are recommending the development of specific principles for home care funding.

It’s an equation that can’t be ignored. The older we get, the more likely it is that some of us will need assistance beyond what we can receive in our own homes. As Canada’s population ages, building new long-term care capacity will enable our communities to provide better care to their citizens and generate economic growth, says a new study by the Conference Board of Canada.

In 2010, Ian, my partner, learned he had terminal cancer. In 2014 he was in the final weeks of his cancer journey – and I became his sole caregiver. 

For many Canadians, a bout of the flu is an inconvenience; perhaps even representing some downtime to be pampered by a partner and binge on Netflix for a day or two. But for Canada’s 5.9 million seniors, influenza can pose a serious health threat. It can even be deadly.

With the cost of seniors residences rising and wait-lists for long-term facilities growing longer, an Ottawa-based company has turned an old concept into a new alternative.

The CMA’s submission to the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, Advancing Inclusion and Quality of Life for Seniors, outlines 15 recommendations for how seniors can remain active and engaged citizens of our communities.

What is technological literacy? According to our research and Students for Seniors’ technology tutoring experience over the last three years, it is the ability, curiosity and attitude to confidently explore and discover new and existing technologies and to use them to enhance one’s lifestyle.

Poor nutrition is putting the lives of many Canadian seniors at risk, according to a new research report. Analysis of results from the 2008–2009 Canadian Community Health Survey – Healthy Aging indicates that close to 1 million Canadian seniors are at nutritional risk. Seniors at nutritional risk who participated in the survey were 60% more likely to die during the survey’s follow-up period and 20% more likely to be admitted to hospital than seniors not at risk.

CMA’s 2018 pre-budget brief provides key recommendations to help improve the productivity and effectiveness of the health care system for Canadians across the country.

With social networks flourishing in the digital realm, it’s easier than ever to remain connected with family members, friends and strangers who share an interest. For Canada’s seniors, though, isolation and loneliness remain challenging issues. One program in downtown Toronto — operated by two of the city’s oldest community organizations — is working to provide relief.

Federal, provincial and territorial Ministers Responsible for Seniors are meeting on September 13, 2017 in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Let’s make sure they know we’re concerned about the lack of a cohesive national seniors care strategy.

Federal Minister of Health, the Honourable Jane Philpott, is coming to the 150th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Medical Association and will answer your questions on seniors care.

For all seniors, physical activity is an important part of a fall-prevention strategy. Exercise programs that promote balance training combined with strength and flexibility have been shown to be effective in significantly reducing falls and the injuries resulting from falls.

More Canadians are over the age of 65 than under 14 — a profound demographic change that is creating significant challenges for the country’s finances and affecting Canada’s economy, the Senate Committee on National Finance said in a report.

With the tagline “independence, activity and good health,” the provincial plan promotes wellness and prevention to improve equity, access and quality of care for the elderly.

Critics say that Aboriginal, Métis and Inuit Canadians over age 65 are paying for the lack of collaborative problem-solving between government departments and agencies.

Canadian seniors would be healthier, and the health care system more effective, if an affordable, supportive housing strategy was in place throughout the country.

The greying and aches are to be anticipated, and often begin to creep up on us well before the age of 65, but the loneliness can be surprising and debilitating.