Shifting to Homecare

Progressive health systems around the world have been shifting funding and resources to the homecare sector

In leading jurisdictions, homecare is seen as the first line of care and hospitals, and long term care homes have become settings of last resort.

Denmark and Canada spend similar proportions of their GDP on healthcare, but Denmark hasn’t built a conventional nursing home since the 1980s. In the 1970s, Denmark began moving toward deinstitutionalization in lieu of a robust homecare infrastructure.

Today, two thirds of its people who need long term care receive it at home. Only 3.4 percent of those 65+ live in nursing homes, and most are over the age of 90.

In the Netherlands, the healthcare system began prioritizing homecare by harnessing technology and new medical innovations to allow seniors to stay in their homes longer. These innovations decreased the percentage of the population living in nursing homes from 16 percent in 1995 to less than 8 percent by 2018.

CLAC agrees with Homecare Ontario’s assertion that an increased investment in hours of homecare could make the dream of avoiding or delaying institutional care settings a reality for tens of thousands more seniors.