Thank you.
My name is Dr. Veronique Boscart. I'm going to start off by stating that I am a registered nurse. I've been a registered nurse in long-term care for over 25 years, and I've worked throughout the COVID‑19 pandemic on good and bad days.
I'm also in my second five-year term of the CIHR/Schlegel industrial research chair for colleges in seniors care, which means that I hold a national research chair focusing on workforce, staffing and training related to those caring for seniors in our country. Within that portfolio, I conduct pragmatic intervention research to really optimize life and care for seniors and their families both in long-term care as well as in retirement and home care.
I also hold the role of executive director at the Canadian Institute for Seniors Care. With that group, we develop tailored training for the future and existing workforce in seniors care. Most of our work is focused in Ontario.
Last, I'm the executive dean at the School of Health and Life Sciences at Conestoga. There we have focused our strategic mandates on optimizing education and training, as well as innovation in research for our health care providers. We are very committed to raising and bringing into place a generation of health care providers who can recognize and address the needs of our seniors and their care partners in our community.
I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today on the needs of seniors in Canada.
As you're aware, seniors age 65-plus are the fastest-growing population and are more likely to have chronic complex conditions and they [Technical difficulty—Editor] support from a health care team [Technical difficulty—Editor] communities. The COVID‑19 pandemic really highlighted the gaps in our care system, so I think, unfortunately, Canada is the country with the highest mortality rate in long-term care homes. I can personally testify to the detrimental effect that has had not only on our country, but also on our workforce, our families, our loved ones and our communities. Now more than ever is a time to critically reassess the design and the way we provide our services for seniors, as well as how we are educating the future workforce on how we deliver current care practices to our seniors.
There are many reports available on that. I'm happy to provide more detailed information when answering your questions. There's never been a better time than now to really cause a change in our long-term care and health care systems.
I am more than delighted to contribute further, and I pass it back to the chair.
Thank you.