Status of Women committee  We haven't specifically done an analysis on a rural-urban split for the caregiver distress that we see for those on home care. We do know we have geographical access challenges across the country. Because home care is the purview of regional health authorities in some provinces

Status of Women committee  Across Canada, provinces with respect to health have been trying to move towards more virtual care. When we looked at physician billing during the pandemic, we saw that while physician visits dropped significantly in April and May and June of last year, for the visits that physic

Status of Women committee  With respect to virtual care, while I can't comment on the absolute dollars to be put into it, we recognize it as being an important component of the health system going forward. All provinces do. There was a very large increase in it during the pandemic. Over 50% of physician vi

Status of Women committee  I'll start by saying that it's a combination of things. Improving home care services overall across Canada would enable us to care for the carers, as you say, in a better way. Right now, some of the other things they lack, as we talked about before, are things like adult day pro

Status of Women committee  I'll start by saying that to care for the carer we need to have, first of all, a way they can understand and access home care services in a much more equitable way across the country. I'm talking about the data we have, which is around carers or caregivers of people already on ho

Status of Women committee  What I will say, Ms. Wong, is that I can't really speak to that. The data we have doesn't break down caregivers by sex or ethnicity at the moment.

Status of Women committee  I would agree with that. While we don't go into the financial aspects, we do know that financial stresses contribute to caregiver distress. If you have caregivers caring for the equivalent of a full-time job, especially the ones who are distressed and are at up to 37 or 38 hours

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Lindsay. Maybe I will start. While we don't have a position necessarily on financial aid or universal programs, we do know that to accommodate changing needs, things like adult day programs, respite care, meal delivery, community social supports and help navigating th

Status of Women committee  That's a really good question. Right now, as an organization, we would be more interested in expanding the home care data we get and expanding the breadth of that data. As I noted earlier, not all provinces are covered, so we are working hard at CIHI to increase the coverage for

Status of Women committee  At CIHI, we don't take positions on policy. We're neutral. What I can say is that we see a wide variation right now in infection rates and deaths across Canada in long-term care and, certainly, there is a call for national standards. Really, we don't take a stand on that, so I re

Status of Women committee  Our data talks specifically about caregivers' distress. These are folks who are on home care. We know that only about 15% of people who are on home care actually receive palliative home care. The combination of getting home care in when you have an illness, any kind of an illness

Status of Women committee  Thank you. On behalf of the Canadian Institute for Health Information, thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee. I acknowledge that the land I’m speaking to you from today is on the traditional territories of the Wendat, the Anishinabe nation, the Chippewa, t