Advisory committee recommends COVID-19 vaccine boosters for long-term care residents
Kelly Cutrara talks to Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research about COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for residents of long-term care homes.
"Some recent studies based in Ontario and Canada have been showing that older people, particularly those living in long-term care settings tend to see a waned immunity much more than, say, the staff members caring for them," says Dr. Sinha.
COVID-19 vaccine boosters recommended for long-term care residents, national advisory committee says
Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research, applauded the move to provide booster shots to long-term care residents.
Although he would have liked to see the recommendation come out sooner, NACI was right to make it specific to people living in long-term care or other congregate-living environments, Sinha said, noting it should not yet be extrapolated to apply to all seniors.
Snowbirds eye return to Florida even as sunshine state battles COVID-19
Dr. Samir Sinha says any snowbirds considering a trip to Florida should consider the added risks they're facing as older adults. "With more COVID spreading and [a] more highly unvaccinated population there, there's a greater risk that they might contract COVID," said Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
Read MoreLong-term care outbreaks are rising, and provinces have different strategies for keeping COVID-19 out
“It reminds us how vulnerable this population remains, because while we'll say, 'wow, you know, almost a hundred per cent of long-term care residents across Canada are vaccinated,’ we're having outbreaks in these homes,” Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview. “These residents are still getting sick, they’re still dying.”
Read MoreFederal government needs to put more cash into long-term care to legislate safety, say experts
The Liberals promised to legislate guaranteed quality care under what they’ve dubbed the Safe Long-Term Care Act, and pledged $9 billion to the cause over five years – but Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research, said the money would not go far enough.
Read MoreThis elderly man is finally home from hospital after his family says he caught COVID-19 from a support worker
Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Health Policy Research, says that it is difficult to diagnose long COVID in older people because they are more likely to already be living with multiple chronic conditions. "Sometimes it's a bit hard to understand whether it's purely a long COVID symptom, or it may be a reflection of other illnesses or diseases, for example, that have now progressed because of the disease."
Read MoreThe NIA updates their COVID-19 Visit Risk tool
"Every three months we update the tool based on feedback we get from users who send us comments. We're now re-launching our third version which basically takes into account larger gatherings, younger age groups, and allows users to answer 'unsure' on some questions where they may be unsure on certain details of the gathering," says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
Read MoreThe Forefront, Ryerson University - The New Age of Aging
More than one in six Canadians are now at least 65 years old. Many Canadian families are already juggling the responsibilities of caring for their parents and their own children. The wait lists for long term care are outliving the patients on them. What can be done?
In this episode, we’ll speak with Dr. Michael Nicin, Executive Director, Ryerson’s National Institute on Ageing, and Karen Cumming, Journalist, Author of The Indispensable Survival Guide to Ontario's Long-Term Care System, about the realities facing our ageing population.
The campaign that was, and the campaign that could have been
"This is where I'm disappointed, frankly, when I see all of the party platforms," said Dr. Samir Sinha, the NIA Director of Health Policy Research, who spoke with Manly before the Green MP tabled his proposal. "I feel like everyone's kind of nipping at certain things in a retail way, as opposed to fundamentally dealing with the root of the issues. Because I don't think anything promised is going to prevent another devastating pandemic [from ripping] through Canada's long-term care homes."
Read More“Being able to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 within a year is frankly a miracle of science, and it’s a gift that we shouldn’t squander,” said Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research. “The sooner we all get vaccinated, and we reach a vaccinated level of herd immunity we’ll have our freedom again as Canadians.”
Read More“If we need to create PSWs and do so quickly, then an accelerated program makes sense. But the more fundamental reasons we have a national shortage are that this work is largely unregulated and not well-paid,” says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
Read MoreBoth the National Institute on Ageing and the Ontario Community Support Association recommend supporting people in their own homes rather than creating temporary solutions until older adults locate a space in a care home.
Read MoreMore Canadians are rethinking where they want to live in their old age after seeing the devastating impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on seniors’ living facilities across the country.
A survey released last autumn by the National Institute on Ageing at Ryerson University shows that almost seven in 10 respondents aged 65 and over prefer to age in their home – and have health care professionals come to them – in light of the pandemic’s impact on seniors’ living facilities.
The COVID-19 Visit Risk Calculator is an online tool that helps you answer the important question: Is this gathering I have planned to attend actually safe?
According to a recent press release, more than 120,000 Canadians have used the three-minute risk calculator to assess their gatherings so far.
Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research, said they listen to the feedback they receive, and wanted to tailor this fall update to the concerns that people have currently, regarding back to school, larger gatherings and the rise of the Delta variant.
“A massacre” is what took place in LTC facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research. “This is a pan-Canadian issue, so I’m glad the federal government started taking an interest in providing leadership in this space, even though this is not traditionally an area of federal jurisdiction.”
Read More“I think the biggest challenge with the provision of long-term care in Canada is that compared to other countries from around the world, we grossly underfund the system that we actually have,” says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research. This means that not only are there not enough beds, but the facilities are underfunded too — resulting in worse care for residents, he added.
Read More"When we created Medicare in 1966 across Canada, the average Canadian was 27 years of age, and all we thought we would need is to treat a young society, unlike other countries around the world, where they realized they would age, and that medication coverage and long-term care are needed."
"So now we have this lopsided universal care system that is a partnership between the federal and provincial government that just excludes something that more and more of us are going to need over time," says Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research.
"If you look at a recent survey commissioned by the National Institute on Ageing, 96% of Canadians over 65 would do everything they can to avoid moving into a nursing home. Homecare is the forgotten stepson/stepdaughter of Canadian healthcare. We need to keep seniors at home by providing homecare resources, which is not only what seniors want in this country, it's also extremely cost effective when you compare it to long-term care expenditures," says Dr. Bob Bell, NIA Senior Fellow and former Deputy Minister of Health and Long-term Care in Ontario.
Read MoreDr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Policy Research, agreed that developing national standards for long-term care is a step in the right direction, and that this enforcement needs to be properly funded.
They also both highlighted that what’s missing from parties’ proposals is the funding necessary to properly fix systemic issues in long-term care, like the shortage of beds, workers, workers’ pay and proper home care.
