Population Aging and the Continuum of Older Adult Care in Manitoba

Older adults (people 65+ years old) are the main users of home care services and nursing homes (called personal care homes, or PCHs, in Manitoba), and the number of older adults living in Manitoba will soon increase considerably. Most Canadian provinces have expanded their care options for older adults, and Manitoba initiated an Aging in Place program in 2004. As one part of this program, supportive housing was created as an alternate to PCH use so that some people can continue living in the community.

To date however, Manitoba has not developed a tool that differentiates supportive housing users from PCH users. This tool is important to ensure that people receive the right type of care based on their needs. Also, a new strategy is required to more clearly define PCH residents’ needs so that providers can develop better care plans for these individuals. Knowledge from this tool can also be used to help understand the capacity of supportive housing to offset PCH use, now and in the future.

This research was conducted at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP), Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, and provides evidence about the continuum of home care, supportive housing, and PCH care in Manitoba. Using a combination of clinical data from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) and health care use data from the Population Health Research Data Repository (Repository)  housed at MCHP, the objectives of this research were to:

• develop a tool for placing people into either supportive housing or PCH care and a second tool to
  more clearly describe PCH residents’ needs.
• use this new evidence to estimate the capacity for supportive housing to offset current and future
  PCH use.

Measurement of Happiness and Life Satisfaction

From the International Longevity Center (U.S.A) site:

This presentation relates to recent collaborations to promote new research projects on the measurement of happiness and later life satisfaction relevant to issues of longevity, aging and independent living for older adults, especially valuable for the Boomer generation and their parents.

Dr. Robert N. Butler, Founding President and CEO of the International Longevity Center-USA and Khristine Rogers, Vice President Active Aging of Atria Senior Living Group, Inc. and research colleagues Dr. Leonard Kelly and Dr. Eileen Rossen presented the material on the link below in the March 2010 Aging in America Conference held in Chicago, jointly sponsored by the American Society on Aging and the National Council on Aging.

The presentation reviews the challenges and advantages inherent in relocating for older Americans who opt for senior living communities and provides an overview of ongoing research through an ILC-Atria partnership probing factors that lead to happiness and satisfaction in later years, especially in the context of living environment transitions.

http://www.ilcusa.org/media/docs/Presentation_to_Aging_in_America_conf_2010_final.ppt

Well-Being and Ageing

Three papers from the Institute for Public Policy Research (UK), look at well-being and ageing.

• Older people and well-being, (2008) the first in the series, describes some of the key social trends in the UK and assesses how these may be impacting on older people and their wellbeing.
• Getting on: well-being in later life, (2009) reviews UK policies for older people and international practice, as well as the priorities of older people in urban versus rural locations. It concludes with recommendations for action, which signal a fresh approach to later life and seek to challenge outdated assumptions.
• Ageing and well-being in an intergenerational context (2009) opens up the policy debates surrounding population ageing beyond the realm of healthcare and pensions. It explores how the well being of older people can be incorporated into four other areas: relationships, work, learning, and the bult environment, and examines policies and programes that have been successful in other counties.

Lifetime Homes, Lifetime Neighourhoods: A National Strategy for Housing in an Ageing Society

This report outlines the NIH (UK)'s strategy to deal with imact of the aging population on housing. The plan is to create Lifetime Homes in Lifetime Neighbourhoods.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/pdf/lifetimehomes

Supportive Housing for Homeless and Hard-to-House Seniors: An In-depth Case Study

This document reports on a study funded by CMHC, (Canadian Mortage and Housing Corporation) which looked at housing options for homeless seniors in Canada, and identified an ideal supportive housing model.

Details of the study are available in PDF at the following:

https://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/b2c/b2c/init.do?language=en&shop=Z01EN&areaID=0000000126&productID=00000001260000000023