Canada ranked among best countries for older people

Canada is among the top five best places in which to be a senior according to a ranking of 96 countries by HelpAge International.

Released today in connection with the United Nations International Day of Older Persons, the organization’s Global Age Watch Index 2014 rates the wellbeing of older people on the basis of income security, health, personal capability and enabling environments.

Norway ranks at the top of the index, followed by Sweden and Switzerland, with Canada in fourth place.  The U.S. comes in at eighth place, with the U.K. out of the top ten at number 11.

Canada rates high in all four categories, although satisfaction with the state of public transportation is lower.

Afghanistan is the worst place for an older person, according to the index, while just above it are Mozambique (95), West Bank and Gaza (94) and Malawi (93).

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

HelpAge is also taking the occasion to further its Age Demands Action campaign in support of seniors’ rights and issues, taking place in around 50 countries worldwide. Activists plan to use the index in meetings with policy makers. They are also calling for a UN convention on the rights of older people.

October 1 was designated the International Day of Older Persons by a resolution the United Nations General Assembly on December 14, 1990. The theme of the 2014 commemoration is “Leaving No One Behind: Promoting a Society for All.”

"Older persons make wide-ranging contributions to economic and social development,” stated UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “However, discrimination and social exclusion persist. We must overcome this bias in order to ensure a socially and economically active, secure and healthy ageing population."

In Canada, October 1 is also celebrated as National Seniors Day.

In a statement marking the day Minister of State (Finance) Kevin Sorenson focused on federal government moves benefiting seniors financially, including targeted tax relief, including pension income splitting and a doubling of the pension income credit eligibility level.

In addition, Sornenson highlighted plans to help older Canadians better manage their financial affairs.

“Over the last number of months, our government has been consulting on a national strategy for financial literacy, with the first phase focused on seniors,” he said. “This strategy will engage more Canadians in preparing financially for their senior years; help seniors to plan and manage their financial affairs; improve the understanding of and access to public benefits for seniors; and increase the tools to combat financial abuse. I expect to unveil this important strategy soon.”

International Day of Older Persons was also being observed with a rally in Windsor, Ontario. The event was organized by the Unifor Retired Workers Area Council, the Seniors Advisory Committee-Windsor, National Pension Reform Committee, National Pensioners Federation, CARP Windsor-Essex, Municipal Retirees Organization Ontario and Life After Fifty.

"On this day, we not only celebrate the effort of our elders to build a better society for all of us, but also commit to fight for pension and decent health care so future generations can retire with dignity," said Len Hope, chair of the Unifor Retired Workers Council Executive and member of the Unifor National Executive Board.

"Older persons are among the first to fall victim to a downturn in the economy or the effects of globalization."

Senior projects tackle bullying, isolation and abuse

Bullying, social isolation and elder abuse are not what we have in mind for our latter years, but they are realities older people face.

"Bullying in senior residences is a common response when the give and take of communal living is not properly addressed,” according to Karen Sheridan of the South East Edmonton Seniors Association (SEESA).

To address the problem, the association has created the Senior to Senior Anti-Bullying project. The project recently received funding through the Government of Canada's New Horizons For Seniors Program for development an anti-bullying toolkit. The toolkit will be used to educate and equip elderly persons living in seniors' residences, as well as residences' staff to better deal with offensive behaviour and confrontation.

“SEESA began the for-seniors by-seniors project to explore how residents can co-create the kind of communities in which they want to live," said Sheridan.

Social isolation among senior caregivers is the focus of the Caregiver Connection Centre project of the Alberta Caregivers Association, which also recently received New Horizons funding. It will provide a centralized gathering place where caregivers can connect with each other for mutual support and information sharing.

“Caregiving can be a very rewarding experience, but it can also be very challenging and isolating,” said Anna Mann, executive director of the Caregivers Association. “Connecting with fellow caregivers makes a huge difference - you can almost see a burden being lifted off their shoulders."

The two Alberta organizations are receiving a total of $42,890 through the New Horizons program.

Meanwhile in Toronto, the Bernard Betel Centre is tacking the problem of elder abuse through art.  

As part of its Empowerment and Expression: Senior Voices through Art initiative,

the centre will organize town hall meetings to promote the social inclusion of seniors through art projects that will focus on elder abuse awareness.

The centre's activities include designing and creating an arts-centred elder abuse awareness curriculum based on best practices. Other activities focus on recruiting and training experienced senior volunteer artists, creating outreach materials to disseminate information about elder abuse and displaying seniors' arts projects to make them widely available to the public.

The Bernard Betel Centre was awarded $22,000 in New Horizons funding for the  project.

Driver testing challenged on human rights grounds

The issue of whether mandatory testing violates the rights of elderly drivers is to be addressed in an Ontario courtroom.

Kenneth MacLennan of Cornwall launched a court challenge against the Ontario Ministry of Transport last September.

MacLennan claims the testing Ontario drivers aged 80 and over must undergo under the province’s Highway Traffic Act is discriminatory on the basis of age, a human rights violation.

"My case is basically this, when the government requires a person 80 and over to pass the test, they effectively violate me under the Ontario Human Rights Code," MacLennan told the Cornwall Standard-Freeholder at the time of the initial court hearing.

MacLennan believes the testing legislation relies on suspect evidence that suggests drivers over 80 are more likely to cause accidents.

According to information from the Elder Advocates of Alberta, a further hearing of MacLennan’s case before the Ontario Superior Court in Ottawa is scheduled for April 7.

In Alberta, Elder Advocates has been concerned for some time about testing of older drivers that the organization considers unfair and discriminatory.

At age 75, drivers must have a physical exam. Another is required at 80, and every two years after that.

In addition to the basic exam, doctors may also require cognitive testing using the Simard MD test and refer drivers for a DriveAble computer simulation driving test, which is administered by a private company and costs $250 plus GST. Failing these tests may lead to drivers being unable to renew their licenses.

Elder Advocates is skeptical about the tests’ fairness and accuracy.

“Please be aware, according to Alberta statistics, seniors are the safest drivers on Alberta roads,” the group stated in a letter to Wayne Drysdale, Alberta transportation minister. “It is well known they have the lowest casualty rates, they are not causing the often carnage on Alberta roads.

“Obviously, there is no justification for this testing. We are being abused by this protocol, our rights are being violated. We are respectfully asking to have this protocol put to an end.”

In a further letter, the group queried Drysdale about statements made at a March 12 seniors driving information session in St. Albert. Speaker Bonnie Dobbs said all doctors will soon be electronically hooked to Alberta Transportation Driver Fitness and Monitoring. This would prevent “doctor shopping” to avoid Simard MD testing.

“Please advise us of the intent of this protocol and the attending cost to taxpayers,” the letter stated. “Some seniors are suffering total neglect in long term care facilities, skin rotting and blackening on their bodies resulting in deadly septicemia as became recently public in Calgary.  However your government is concerning itself and spending scarce resources and effort to unfairly target, destabilize and humiliate independent, functioning Alberta citizens.”

Seniors' care faulted in throne speech responses

Not a lot was said about seniors in the Alberta government's speech from the throne earlier this week. In the speech given by Lieutenant-Governor Donald S. Ethell at the March 3 opening of the second session of 28th Alberta Legislature, the government congratulated itself for building a seniors' care home in Strathmore.
It also stated the government will "invest in better seniors' care, focusing funding on aging in place and on innovative new technology that allows patients to recover in their own homes," and said Crown land may be made available for new continuing care centres.
However, in their responses to the throne speech in the legislature, several members of the opposition parties had plenty to say, honing in on current deficiencies and setting out how they would do it better.
"Well we don't have to look back on what's happening to the seniors in our province or some of the horrible, horrible things that we've seen," said Heather Forsyth, Wildrose MLA for Calgary-Fish Creek. "The government doesn't seem to understand that the fact of the matter is is that while we appreciate what they're doing in continuing care spaces, we have seniors in this province that need to be in long-term care nursing beds."
Forsyth noted that people such as Dr. Paul Parks had frequently spoken out about the need for building long-term care nursing beds because not everyone fits into the continuing care model.
"I saw that with my own mom, who was in a continuing care facility and ended up in the hospital," she said.
The MLA for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre, Joe Anglin, also a Wildrose member, said he sees significant issues with the long-term care facility in Rocky Mountain House. Anglin pointed to understaffing that has resulted in residents being served cold food and not even being able to get the two meals a week to which they are entitled.
"What's happening here -- and to a T every one of the front-line healthcare workers in this long-term care facility…will testify that this now is an extreme example, and it's a critical situation, where proper care is not  being delivered," he said.
"The cutbacks have been too great," Anglin went on. "We have an imbalance in the system. I wish Rocky Mountain House was the only place, but it's not. We're seeing it elsewhere, in other places in the province, and this is a real issue that affects us."
As a result of government actions, increased healthcare costs are putting a strain on seniors and their families stated David Eggen, NDP MLA for Edmonton-Calder.
"We've somehow moved it out of the provincial budget, and so many more people are having to pay for care for seniors with assisted living and so forth. That price, that burden, is often more than families can afford.
Eggen believes however that care for seniors is not a drastic problem for society.
"We knew that the baby boom would be passing through our demographic for the last 50 years," he said. "It's arrived now, and with planning and with care we can build the public seniors' care that we require for these next number of years."
Seniors would benefit from major investments in healthcare under a New Democrat government, said party leader Brian Mason, MLA for Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood.
He said a plan for the $1 billion extra in federal health transfers Alberta will begin receiving next year would see the government investing in long-term care and home care and reducing prescription drug costs for seniors, along with supporting mental health care, and expanding medical and nursing programs.
According to Liberal leader Raj Sherman, Edmonton-Meadowlark MLA, a government he headed would bring in world-class home care, nonprofit community home care and lodge care and world-class nonprofit community-based long-term care.
"Alberta Liberals will bring in a drug plan so that seniors can afford their drugs, unlike the government who wants to bring in a drug plan that's a tax on the sick," he added. "If seniors can afford to get their get their drugs, they will actually stay out of the hospital system. We know this investment in a drug plan will improve their lives and save us money in the acute-care system."

Effort needed to improve Aboriginal seniors health: report

Governments must make a greater effort to collaborate to improve health care for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis seniors, according to a new report by the Health Council of Canada.

The report, Canada’s most vulnerable: Improving health care for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis seniors, concludes they often do not receive the same level of health care as non-Aboriginal Canadians because of poor communication, collaboration, and disputes between governments about who is responsible for the care of Aboriginal people.

“Aboriginal seniors have more complex health needs than other Canadian seniors, but they often don’t receive the same level of care,” said Dr. Catherine Cook, a councillor with the Health Council of Canada who is Métis. 

According to 2011 Statistics Canada, there were 82,690 Aboriginal people in Canada aged 65 and over, accounting for 5.9 per cent of the total Aboriginal population. This compares to the 14.2 per cent of seniors in the non-Aboriginal population.

In 2011 in Alberta, there were 220,695 Aboriginal people, representing 15.8 per cent of the total Aboriginal population of Canada. About four per cent are aged 65 and over.

In comparison to the larger Canadian population, a significantly higher proportion of Aboriginal seniors live on low incomes and in poor health, with multiple chronic conditions and disabilities, the report points out.

Many are in poorer physical and mental health due to the disruption to their way of life caused by colonization, particularly the intergenerational impacts and trauma of the residential school experience.

These health needs are magnified by poverty, poor housing, racism, language barriers, and cultural differences.

Despite this, little attention has been paid to date to the health care needs of Aboriginal seniors in either research or public policy, the report states.

Home care for First Nations seniors on reserve is one example it discusses.

“In some provinces, there can be quite a discrepancy between the level of care available to First Nations seniors on reserve, and what is available to seniors in the rest of the province,” said Cook. “At the same time, some provinces have inadvertently caused more pressure for on-reserve home care programs by creating policies that send people home earlier from the hospital.”

 The Health Council’s report looks at developments from across Canada in which governments, health regions, and Aboriginal communities have formed partnerships to improve health care for Aboriginal seniors and other Aboriginal people.

“The ground-breaking transfer of health authority to the new First Nations Health Authority in BC is the highest profile example of this type of partnership,” says John G. Abbott, CEO of the Health Council of Canada. “We heard about many emerging partnerships at a local or regional level, where people were surveying Aboriginal seniors to find out their needs, and working together to make improvements,” added Abbott.

The purpose of this report, he noted, is to give governments, regional health authorities, and health care providers a better understanding of the problems faced by First Nations, Inuit, and Métis seniors, and to provide them with examples of how they can do things differently.

The report is at www. healthcouncilcanada.ca/improvinghealthcare.

Alberta Health care coverage extended for snowbirds

Albertans in who head off to find the sun winter can now extend their stay an extra month while maintaining health care coverage. 

Associate Minister of Seniors, Dave Quest, announced the change this morning at Calgary International Airport.

Snowbirds and other long-term vacationers can now be out of Alberta up to 212 days (seven months) a year while keeping their eligibility for Alberta health care insurance coverage. This is a 30-day increase from the previous 182-day limit (six months).

“We want Albertans to have the flexibility to go on extended vacations while having the peace of mind that their health care coverage is there for them if they need it,” said Quest.

Increasing the amount of time longer-term vacationers are permitted out of the province allows Alberta residents to remain eligible for health coverage as long as they have not established permanent residence elsewhere.  

The increase brings Alberta into line with other Canadian provinces, including British Columbia, Ontario and Manitoba. Newfoundlanders remain eligible for coverage for 240 days.

The new policy comes into effect immediately, and includes travelers who are already outside of the province.

“This is welcome news for our members who told us they wanted the option to visit other countries for several months at a time, without sacrificing their health care coverage,” said Michael MacKenzie, executive director of the Canadian Snowbird Association.

“Extending coverage for an extra month gives travelers more flexibility.” 

Albertans who plan to be out of the province for extended periods need to contact Alberta Health each year before leaving, to ensure their health care coverage remains current.