I was looking into the May 2017 report from the Wellesley Institute that looked at diversity, aging and intersectionality in Ontario home care. We know that home care is going to be an increasingly important part of the seniors care metrics. As we know, in centres such as Toronto, minority seniors account for an increasing proportion of the seniors population.
I represent one of the Toronto ridings. According to the report, Toronto experienced a 131% increase in the number of visible minority seniors between 2006 and 2011. For Canada, it was 31% overall, but specifically for Toronto, it was 131%.
The report found that minority seniors have cultural, language and other barriers to accessing publicly funded home care. They were less likely to access publicly funded home care, more likely to rely on private care or family, and more likely to have unmet home care needs.
Are we doing what we need to do in order to address the intersectionality needs in seniors care delivery? What do we need to be doing that we are not doing?
Ms. Gillis, maybe you would like to start.