"The COVID-19 Visit Risk Tool asks you to estimate what you think your risk is and then it calculates what we think your risk is. The tool provides you with education, so that you can get the latest up to date evidence and you can make any visit your planning safer," says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
Read MoreDr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research says, "These aren't pie in the sky ideas for home care. We're physically seeing them here in Denmark, and they're all practical & achievable."
Read More"Facing a future of dire gaps in its long-term care model, Canada needs new policies and practices to address the multiple challenges and opportunities," says Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, NIA Director of Financial Security Research.
Read More“While governments are ready to say we’re done with COVID-19 and they don’t want to talk about COVID-19 any more because frankly it’s not very great for political fortunes, the reality is you can’t monitor what you don’t measure,” says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy.
Read More"Close to 5000 residents haven't even received a single COVID-19 vaccine dose in in our long-term care homes. We are setting ourselves up for failure, especially if we have a new variant and as community transmission rates grow up while we prematurely relax some of the restrictions that we have in place right now," says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
Read MoreDr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research says, "smaller homes may struggle more with maintaining mandatory vaccine policies because they have fewer legal resources to defend them. The biggest concern is not really for the big chains. Ironically, it’s actually for the not-for-profit, smaller, publicly owned operations that don’t feel have the legal wherewithal to stand on their own and to defend against a claim."
Read More"90% of COVID-19 deaths have happened amongst older people. This has exposed the fact that Canada spends far less than the average OECD country in terms of its long-term care home spending. Underspending and underfunding these homes has led to a high percentage of deaths happening in these settings. We haven't fixed the fundamental issues at play. We really need to end this pandemic with some true action that will fix these fundamental issues," says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
Read More"Culturally safe and appropriate care really comes to the essence of who we are working with. While we might look the same, we all have different lived experiences, and we might have different cultural backgrounds and needs. Everything from the language we use, the food we serve, and the ways in which we interact with someone are ways that we can express what we call culturally safe and appropriate care," says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director Health Policy Research.
Read More"People feel more financially insecure than ever before. If you take a step back, it is pretty clear why. Retirement financial security means being able to sustain your standard of living throughout retirement. However, if we look at the Canadian retirement income system, retirees are only really getting $20 000 in pension income and the rest should be coming from private savings but right now 80% of Canadians in the private sector are not even in a workplace pension plan," says Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, NIA Director of Financial Security Research.
Read More“This year, in particular, has demonstrated how critical it is that more older Canadians have access to virtual healthcare options that can help them to stay healthy and safe," says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
Read MoreAgeing in place is taking on new urgency for older Canadians who watched COVID-19 run rampant in nursing and retirement homes and cause 80 per cent of deaths in the first wave, according to the NIA.
Read More"Everybody aged 50 and over should receive their shingles vaccination because we know that 1 in 3 people will be affected by this disease and this disease can be prevented by the vaccine," says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
Read More"Only 29% of people aged 50 and older have received a shingles vaccine. Right now, about 94% of those individuals have gotten vaccinated against COVID, so it is not that older people are reluctant to get vaccinated. It is just that there is a huge lack of awareness that there is a shingles vaccine available and people do not know how to get the vaccine," says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
Read MorePurpose Financial's Longevity Pension Fund, introduced in Canada last summer, is designed to provide sustainable income for life with liquidity of principal. Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, NIA Director of Financial Security Research is one of the advisers to Purpose Investments.
Read More"Food bank use has increased by a staggering 36% among Ontario residents 65 and older, in 2021 alone. Since 2008, food bank usage among seniors has ballooned by 64%," says NIA's Executive Director, Michael Nicin.
Read More"It can be much more affordable to help people age at home where they prefer to be and where they're happier and they have better health outcomes," says Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, NIA Director of Financial Security Research.
Read More"Most recently, there are roughly 2,000 LTC and retirement homes across Canada experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks," said Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
"This has resulted in an unprecedented number of residents, for example, who have had to be isolated in their own rooms. And we're now facing yet another lockdown in their own homes, another period of prolonged isolation, and we know the devastating impacts that can have," said Sinha.
