Thank you very much.
Thank you for giving me your time. Thank you for permitting me to speak on this important subject. I don't think I should take the six minutes.
As Mr. Soulière has noted, the consequences we have seen in many health care settings, particularly in long-term care, are tragically unsurprising to the seniors organizations and advocates who have sounded the alarm on the state of senior care in Canada for some years now.
The federal government is to be commended for rapidly answering the provinces’ calls for personal protective equipment, while also supporting Canadian business and innovation to mobilize that response. The deployment of Canadian Armed Forces members to support long-term care settings was significant and necessary, and development of long-term care guidelines for provinces and territories was an excellent example of federal leadership in health care.
We are at a critical moment for health care and seniors care in Canada. What we do next will define the health care and seniors care systems that remain for Canadians post-pandemic.
Federal Retirees is joining the call for a national review of long-term care in Canada, with a goal of ensuring that Canadians in these facilities receive the care and dignity they need and deserve. The review must be public, independent, evidence-based and informed by older adults, informal caregivers, and of course subject-matter experts.
We understand provincial and federal jurisdictions, and our comments will also be taken to provincial and territorial counterparts. Canada’s long-term care situation is a national issue. A significant, vulnerable proportion of our population has been seriously impacted by systemic failures. Difficult truths like these, once we are aware of them, must be faced head-on, collaboratively and intentionally, with the participation of all levels of government.
Global counterparts like Australian and current Canadian expertise can both form the basis for a Canadian solution. For example, we should be leveraging Veterans Affairs Canada's extensive experience in placing and monitoring veterans in long-term care. An instrument like the Canada Health Act for long-term care could serve to ensure national criteria and care standards tied to funding, along with repercussions for failing to meet standards.
Home and community care must also be part of the solution. Resource and system shifts are needed to move us away from the default reliance on long-term care and toward an expansion of home and community care services, which allow Canadians to age in place, are less costly and generally lead to better health outcomes and quality of life. National criteria and care standards tied to funding may be appropriate here as well. Again, Veterans Affairs' experience providing home care support through the veterans independence program could prove invaluable.
Informal caregivers are crucial partners in the delivery of care, and COVID-19 has impacted them and how they provide this essential care. Measures put in place because of COVID-19, like physical distancing and restricted access to long-term care facilities and similar facilities, have resulted in some informal caregivers moving family into their homes for the duration of the pandemic—some people listened to the doctor. This has led to increased stress for caregivers, as well as increased costs, and immediate financial support based on need, similar to other COVID-19 assistance, should be implemented.
Informal caregivers need to be able to safely return to long-term care facilities as soon as possible. Their absence has impacted staff, and the stress and emotional toll for residents this has caused—some with capacity issues who cannot understand why familiar faces are no longer around—cannot be underscored enough.
The federal government can support the provinces and territories by developing guidelines for the loosening of restrictions and the reintroduction of informal caregivers into long-term care, similar to the interim guidance for long-term care homes released in April.
The National Association of Federal Retirees believes the COVID-19 pandemic does not have to be characterized only by tragedy or catastrophe for any part of the Canadian population, and particularly not for older adults, their families and loved ones.
Federal Retirees will continue to work with you and with all levels of government to find opportunity in COVID-19. The pandemic made visible the cracks in health care and senior care. What happens next is up to all of us. Federal Retirees believes COVID-19 and Canada’s recovery from it can be our opportunity to make things right for seniors, for their families and for all of us who will, one day, be seniors deserving of security and dignity too.
Thank you very much.