Author: Anna Nienhuis

14 May 2021 Ontario Long-Term Care Commission Recommendations Mirror ARPA Priorities

Posted at 12:56h in Blog, Elder Care 0 Comments

The Ontario government created a COVID-19 Long-Term Care Commission in the summer of 2020. This commission was directed to research and report on the failures that led to a ravaged long-term care system in the province, and provide recommendations to prevent such an outcome in the future. The report of the commission was released in April, and, as we recently released our own policy report on elder care, we were very interested to see the recommendations. While critics rightly continue to call out years of government avoidance and care home mismanagement...

11 Jan 2021 Compassionate travel is essential travel

Posted at 10:31h in Politics 0 Comments

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Published in Winnipeg Free Press NDP Member of Parliament Niki Ashton used her holidays to visit her ill grandmother in Greece. She should be commended for this act of compassion – instead, she was stripped of her cabinet critic positions and subjected to public shaming for choosing to travel when non-essential travel is being limited. Elected leaders travelling to exotic locations for their Christmas holidays during the COVID-19 crisis are rightly being called out for failing to practice what they preach. But it’s unfortunate that there has not been greater discretion by...

30 Nov 2020 New Respectfully Submitted Elder Care Policy Report

Posted at 13:11h in Elder Care 0 Comments

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ARPA Canada’s newest Respectfully Submitted Elder Care Report has just been released! You can read the text of the report below or view, download, and/or print a pdf of the policy report here. In 2016, Canada’s senior population (those aged 65+) exceeded the number of children (under the age of 15) for the first time in history.[i] By 2025, the proportion of seniors in the Canadian population is expected to double from where it was in 2015.[ii] Canada has had a fertility rate lower than replacement rate for over 40 years...

20 Oct 2020 Fully public long-term care is not ideal elder care

Posted at 01:12h in Blog, Elder Care 0 Comments

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A BC NDP government will move to an entirely public system of senior care if elected, leader John Horgan said. The British Columbia provincial election is coming up on October 24, and after the COVID-19 pandemic exposed many deficiencies in long-term care facilities, this is a key issue for all parties to address. As home care services improve and our senior population increases, people age at home for longer and so often require high levels of care when they enter long-term care. But is full government provision of that care...

03 Jun 2020 Canada’s lack of strategy in targeting COVID-19 led to unnecessary crisis in long-term care homes

Posted at 16:01h in Blog, Elder Care, Family 0 Comments

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Long-term care facilities house some of our society’s most vulnerable: those who need help eating, using the bathroom, or simply turning over in bed. The fact that some of our elders are facing neglect and abuse from those meant to care for them incites justifiable outrage. We need to ask what can be done to improve long-term care and assisted living. But we also need to ask how our governments’ (federal, provincial, and municipal) responses to COVID-19 contributed to this. Long-term care homes were known to be high risk Outbreaks of highly...

02 Apr 2020 Society waking up to what it means to think of others

Posted at 02:06h in Blog, Elder Care, Euthanasia 0 Comments

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Just a few short weeks ago, we shared with you our grave concerns about Bill C-7, a bill introduced to expand euthanasia to those whose death is not reasonably foreseeable. This bill would make even more Canadians eligible for, and thus vulnerable to, euthanasia. Thankfully, with Parliament temporarily suspended on account of COVID-19, this bill has also been put on hold. In this holding period, the events unfolding around us have been astounding when we think of the shift in language and behaviour toward the most vulnerable. When hordes of young...

10 Jan 2020 Euthanasia is increasing organ donations. What should we do?

Posted at 02:04h in Blog, Euthanasia 1 Comment

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Because the time, place, and means of medically assisted deaths are pre-planned, euthanasia makes it easier than ever before to collect human organs and tissue before they spoil. The Ottawa Citizen reports more than a 100% increase in donations from MAiD patients in Ontario since 2017. But this is not a silver lining to legalized euthanasia, as it might first appear, and as it is being portrayed. It confronts Canadians with difficult ethical questions. To name a few that the medical community has also been grappling with: How does the possibility...

10 Jul 2019 Merging palliative care and MAiD

Posted at 12:14h in Euthanasia 0 Comments

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Increasing pressure on palliative care providers to offer assisted suicide and euthanasia At a recent conference hosted by the Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors and Providers (CAMAP), three doctors presented on how euthanasia could be pushed into palliative care spaces. Evidently, some palliative care physicians and nurses believe that “Medical Assistance in Dying” or “MAiD”* is a natural part of palliative care. But many are strongly opposed to the encroachment of MAiD into palliative care wards and facilities. In May 2019, the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians clarified in a statement...

Author: Anna Nienhuis

14 May 2021 Ontario Long-Term Care Commission Recommendations Mirror ARPA Priorities

11 Jan 2021 Compassionate travel is essential travel

30 Nov 2020 New Respectfully Submitted Elder Care Policy Report

20 Oct 2020 Fully public long-term care is not ideal elder care

03 Jun 2020 Canada’s lack of strategy in targeting COVID-19 led to unnecessary crisis in long-term care homes

02 Apr 2020 Society waking up to what it means to think of others

10 Jan 2020 Euthanasia is increasing organ donations. What should we do?

10 Jul 2019 Merging palliative care and MAiD

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