“A lot of thought leaders in government and industry believe Dynamic Pensions are the right thing to do. There’s a lot of good will toward making it work,” says Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, NIA Director of Financial Security Research.
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“Ultimately living with COVID means there will be people who get infected. These people will most likely be marginalized and vulnerable citizens, in particular older people,” says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
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Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research says, "helping the elderly live longer in their own homes by providing home care is the only time government can give people what they want and simultaneously spend less money."
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Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research says, "the existing levels of vaccination in long-term care homes resulted in the lower death rate during the Omicron wave. However, the “collateral damage” that did occur, including isolation and other issues, stemmed from understaffing during outbreaks. This could have been prevented with a more robust vaccine rollout."
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"How do you staff these homes to efficiently get people bathed, washed, and fed? Sometimes we forget that these are people who are living in their home and who are often living with really complex conditions like dementia which requires extra attention as well as a high level of training," says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Heath Policy Research.
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"I think the timing is a bit too early to lift all restrictions. Right now, we are seeing that a number of people have not had access to the booster shot, including older adults across the country. About 74% of older adults have been boosted versus 94% that have only gotten their first and second doses. This 20% gap is the group of people that are most likely to die from COVID," says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
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The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted serious systemic problems with infection prevention and control as well as other issues inside long-term care residences across the country. Data gathered by the National Institute on Ageing finds 16,345 long-term care residents had died of COVID-19, as of Feb. 8, since the pandemic began.
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According to the National Institute on Ageing's latest numbers, more than 16,000 residents of long-term care homes in Canada have died because of COVID-19. Thousands of staff members in long-term care facilities have been infected as well, and more than two dozen of them have died as a result.
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Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research, says that the HSO requirements will be used to accredit nursing homes, but could also provide the foundation for new laws, including the Liberals’ promised "Safe Long- Term Care Act."
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Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research, says many older adults also want restrictions to end, but feel conflicted. “They are also very clearly aware that there are a number of older people who are not being supported, or are not necessarily being protected in the way that is needed, for society to reopen safely.”
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"Loosening these restrictions is going to allow residents to make sure that their social well-being is being met and their care needs can be better attended to while cases are declining," says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
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"We can change long-term care by really reorienting the way we provide care to be what we call having a resident care focus. This fundamentally changes the way we provide care to asking first and foremost what do residents want? By asking a resident when do they want to eat, for example, or when they want to bathe. Then all of a sudden you can provide more individualized care that's more in line to what residents want or need," says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
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"The key is that we really start with a basis that this is what care should look like. It needs to be properly funded. It needs to be accountable. It needs to have proper enforcement around it, to make these standards come to life," says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
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Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research says, "there are a number of vulnerable individuals who still haven't been able to get access to a booster dose. For example, amongst our older people who represent 90% of our COVID deaths to date, we've done a good job of getting over 94% of them their two doses. However, only 80% have received three doses and it is the third dose that makes the difference. Without it, these folks are being left highly vulnerable."
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"Why would our government right now, only a few months from an election, want to call in the military? Because that could be a sign of failure. Any home in Ontario can actually call the Red Cross and ask for their support, but why would you want to be that home that admitted that you might not be able to provide the care that you're residents needed?" says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
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Earlier in the pandemic, Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research, helped create a COVID-19 Risk Assessment tool for people who are looking to visit friends and family, but also looking to be safe and ensure the risk of spreading the virus is low. His tool gained noticeable traction during the holidays, when there were no official restrictions while Omicron was spreading.
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Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research and chair of the HSO’s technical committee, said Ottawa has supported the standards, but he is concerned jurisdictional issues will slow “desperately” needed progress, including legislation.
“I don’t know of any Canadian who is impressed with our current standards of long-term care in any province or territory,” Dr. Sinha said in an interview.
Thought leaders from across Canada have joined forces to raise awareness and educate the Canadian community on the risk of shingles. In a lifetime 1 in 3 people, particularly those over 50 will develop shingles. This moderated discussion, featuring NIA's Executive Director, Michael Nicin, is framed by a set of questions that reflect the key messages of the campaign and how each organization can help to dispel common conceptions such as “I won’t get it”, “I have a healthy lifestyle”, and “I already had shingles in the past”.
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Over the course of his career, Keith Ambachtsheer, NIA Senior Fellow, has conducted research on the effectiveness of various governance and decision-making structures in public pension plans. His studies, among others, have shown that better governance strongly correlates with objective measures of better long-term strategic investment decisions.
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For those with compromised immune systems, the reopening of Canada is not so easy. "It could absolutely be deadly, especially if we're not putting in the right safeguards, other than just hermitically sealing these individuals off from the rest of society," said Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
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