Human Resources committee  Thank you Mr. Chair, and thank you to the members of the committee for your interest in the impact of COVID-19 on older adults. On behalf of the members of the National Seniors Council, I want to provide our sincerest condolences to Canadians who have lost a parent or loved one

Human Resources committee  Thank you for that important question. It is something that we looked at when we did our consultation in Winnipeg. We had national representation there from experts and whatnot. A lot of the recommendations that came forth, which would be related to what you just shared, are on

Human Resources committee  Thank you again for another important topic, that of social isolation. The council, previous to my involvement, also looked at social isolation. There's work on our website that dates from 2017. There were some consultations done previous to that report as well. Some of the re

Human Resources committee  There are definitely some important health impacts of social isolation, be it in long-term care, like what you just shared, or for people in the community. I've seen it myself in my own projects on aging in place and the impact that social isolation is having on things like mobil

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Ms. Chabot. This is a most important issue. The mobilization role of the National Seniors Council can be interpreted in different ways. The members of the council often come from different provinces, so we have a fairly national representation. All members are very c

Human Resources committee  I've collected some data as part of my personal work. I could send it to you if you're interested.

Human Resources committee  Yes, certainly, and I agree with your comment about how sad [Technical difficulty—Editor] Ageism certainly happens in the intersection of sexism as well and sexuality. It's not an isolated phenomenon that happens. During the pandemic, what we've seen is often what we say is “

Human Resources committee  It's a complex question. Certainly, at the National Seniors Council, we are just starting our work on ageism. It was one of our priorities in the last work plan and we are carrying that priority into our new workload as well, because we have ongoing work that's happening there.

Human Resources committee  I think that would be a great idea. In my own work on aging in place, we've started to explore that. We have retired employees from Canada Post in our community, and they were telling us that we really should look into this because they know it would work. Even newspaper carriers

Human Resources committee  I can share one personally, not from my own family but from research we did on caregivers who had a relative in long-term care who they hadn't been able to visit. We heard from a designated care person who was allowed to go in how difficult it was to not be able to have the full

Human Resources committee  I've not heard of requesting or thinking about MAID, but I have certainly heard of seniors wanting to stop eating.

Human Resources committee  I can certainly share reactions from the members. Of course, we were quite concerned. It certainly fed into the report we were preparing at that time on COVID and older adults. I can't say that we were fully surprised. I think many of us who have been in the sector of aging and l

Human Resources committee  We always come back to the long-term care standards, to not only developing them but also making sure that they're able to be implemented. Make the conditions correct that they are able to be implemented. We know that it's an FPT matter and it's at different levels, but we defini

Human Resources committee  Yes. Maybe not precisely, but we certainly are aware that they are a group of seniors who are more at risk of social isolation, especially with COVID. Seniors who identify as LGBTQ often say that they go back in the closet when they reach a certain age. They feel that it's not a

Human Resources committee  Yes, certainly. I often see in my personal work on home support that all aspects of housing are very important.