Ottawa long-term care homes and the arrival of the Baby Boomers
Ottawa, like the rest of Canada, is getting older. Nationally, Statistics Canada found that between 1981 and 2005, seniors, defined as people over 65 years of age, rose from 9.6 to 13.1 per cent of the population.1 Between 1996 and 2006, the population of seniors in Ottawa rose from 49,445 to 100,875.2
Over the next 50 years, Canada is going to get much older, due to the aging of the Baby Boomers.3 In this paper, we examine how long-term care homes in Ottawa are preparing for explosive growth in the senior population.
To find out how these homes are preparing, the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada sent a survey to all long-term care homes in Ottawa.4 Twenty-fi ve surveys were distributed and 12 were returned, for a completion rate of 48 per cent. This is therefore a local snapshot only; it cannot be extrapolated to represent a larger geographical area due to the small sample size.
Ottawa long-term care homes revealed several common concerns, which this paper will explore. These include:
As a result of our survey, we recommend the following:
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