Is it time to re-think long-term senior housing?

Since the disaster of the COVID19 outbreak, many long-term care and senior facilities have been gravely impacted by the outbreak. It is our deepest condolences to the families who were impacted by the pandemic.

We at Aspen Care believe it is in the structure of our living arrangements that have been the culprit in reducing our exposure to the virus. Our living model differs greatly from the standard long-term care home. Our current living model is such that we only host 1-3 clients in a home at a time, or we offer in-home care. Aspen Care is even moving towards only providing in-home care in the near future, as we don’t believe in the oversized long-term care home model. Care models like Aspen Care's model are a minority and should be widely considered in the future. Now with this outbreak, we have even more reasons to believe that our business model is safer for all parties.

There are limited living options for Canadian seniors. They can remain in their own homes if they can afford in-home care, or they can find alternative living solutions like larger long-term care or nursing homes. These are currently the only main living options for seniors today. Aspen Care is an outlier in this regard. We believe it is time to rethink the mass senior care facility, and hopefully, get healthcare companies to approach senior care differently. There are many reasons to abolish the large long-term senior living model. Alan Freeman, an Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs stated in a recent article that “Nursing homes have always been the poor step-child of the health-care system. Homes are notoriously understaffed and personal-care workers are poorly paid, forced to take shifts at more than one home and sometimes with private clients as well. And even still, in the middle of a pandemic, there’s inadequate personal protection for these workers. In many cases, PPE is provided only once an outbreak has been confirmed, when it’s often too late”. Is corralling seniors into a care home inhumane, bad for society, and ultimately dangerous if an outbreak were to ever occur? Why hasn’t customer service been a top priority? Are larger care facilities not equipped to handle this outbreak, and are they only concerned with their bottom line? Yes, these are all questions that should be addressed once the pandemic settles.

We should learn from this experience and promote change in long-term care. Even before the pandemic, we saw problems transpire with larger senior living models. It is more beneficial for the well-being and quality of life for seniors to be brought back into mixed communities, back into their own homes, and cared for on a personal level. The government should step in, offer subsidies and funding for individuals wanting to be cared for at home, especially if another pandemic should ever occur. It is time for larger organizations to recognize the problem with their large home care facilities and rediscover humane care models. Let’s create a discourse around these topics, and become advocates for our seniors.