Nursing home care aides are burning out but measures can be taken to improve their work conditions. And that will result in better care for their patients
By Carole A. Estabrooks and Stephanie A. Chamberlain Contributors Many of us have moms and dads or older friends and relatives in nursing home facilities. We care very much about their well-being and the supports they receive. But who’s caring for the care aides who do the bulk of the front-line work in nursing homes?…
The majority of deaths and injuries resulting from natural disasters involve seniors
By John Hirdes and Sandy van Solm EvidenceNetwork.ca The combination of an aging population with increases in natural disasters has had deadly consequences for seniors. Quebec health authorities estimate that as many 70 people died as a result of the recent heat wave with a humidex of over 40C. Most heat-related deaths in Montreal involved seniors with chronic conditions.…
The delivery and financing of education could produce better results for students and their families while saving money
By Jason Clemens and Sazid Hasan Fraser Institute As the new Ontario government begins to fully grasp the enormity of the task it faces to return the province to prosperity, education reform must be front and centre. The need to balance the budget while introducing tax relief to make the province more competitive and attractive…
Social assistance programs in Canada are falling behind. It's time we expanded basic coverage to include drug and dental care
By Arjumand Siddiqi and Odmaa Sod-Erdene EvidenceNetwork.ca Public health researchers have long known that poverty and poor health are linked, but new evidence suggests that social assistance – the government system designed to provide those in poverty with income support – is not succeeding at protecting health. Using data from national government surveys, we studied the…
In a world of turmoil, we can’t afford to waste precious resources – particularly the leadership and ingenuity of people with disabilities
The recently proposed Accessible Canada Act and the just released Senate report on essential fixes for Revenue Canada concerning the disability tax credit, Breaking Down Barriers, are stellar achievements for advocates with disabilities and the receptive politicians and public servants who listened. If both are implemented, they will remove the physical, social and financial barriers…
Solving long hospital wait times requires a fundamental shift in the way we care for the elderly
By David Wiercigroch and Caberry Weiyang Yu EvidenceNetwork.ca Hospital overcrowding is not a new issue. Limited bed spaces have plagued Ontario hospitals for years and are increasingly straining our system. Not only are long wait times a shameful expectation when patients arrive in the emergency department, providing care in a busy hospital hallway has become…
Securing a meaningful and enduring reduction in medical error requires a cultural transformation
In a 2003 Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) survey, “about a quarter [of adults] said that an adverse event had occurred in their own care, or that of a family member.” Half claimed that the adverse event had produced “serious health consequences.” Three-quarters claimed that it had “led to a hospital visit or longer…
The Elizabeth Wettlaufer case should serve as a warning to all of us about the issue of patient safety
By Fiona MacDonald and Karine Levasseur EvidenceNetwork.ca We’ve all been there: it’s 3 a.m. and your partner, child, sibling or parent becomes ill suddenly and needs medical care. Will they be safe? The ongoing public inquiry into the safety and security of residents in the long-term care homes system is shedding new light on the…
Our closed government-heavy system stands in stark contrast to other universal health-care systems that have shorter wait times
It’s no secret that Canadians face some of the longest health-care wait times in the developed world. According to the Fraser Institute’s annual survey of physicians, at 21.2 weeks from referral to treatment, Canadians waited longer in 2017 than ever before. And for some patients, wait times can have serious consequences. While this may be…
By thinking twice before prescribing and talking with patients about the risks of medications, clinicians are tackling overuse
By Karen Born and Wendy Levinson EvidenceNetwork.ca Canadians are living longer than ever and we are also taking more medications than ever. And this can make us sicker, not healthier. A report released recently by the Canadian Institute for Health Information found that one in four seniors in Canada take 10 or more medications. That’s…
Increased spending has entrenched an inefficient system that has inflated the cost of getting the same outcomes. It’s time for change
Provincial ministers of health and finance seek to ‘bend the health care cost curve’ but year after year, provincial budgets bend the curve in the wrong direction, adding billions of dollars to provincial health spending. We’ve doubled spending on our medical treatment system in Canada since 2005 – and what did we get? Not improved…
The medical profession lectures the public on health. Some believe it’s time for the public to lecture the medical profession on ethics
We need the medical profession. It reassures us. When we’re ill, it either cures us or numbs our pain. Unfortunately, our reliance on health care can lead us to look at medical professionals through rose-tinted spectacles. As with society at large, the medical profession mixes the good, the bad and the ugly. Occasionally, the profession…
Individuals with developmental disabilities live longer than ever and that means the responsibility for care is shifting to siblings
By Helen Ries and Becky Rossi EvidenceNetwork.ca, University of Winnipeg A combination of better medical care and good lives in the community mean longer life expectancies for individuals with a developmental disability. That’s good news. But many are outliving their parents, who have taken care of them over their lifetimes. Once parents are no longer…
It’s not just about having more doctors. It’s time we used all the skills that the wide variety of health workers have to offer
Does Ontario have enough doctors? Surprisingly, the answer is: Yes, we may have enough doctors. How is this possible when many people don’t have a doctor, or wait days, weeks or even months for a medical appointment? We have more doctors than ever before, but many aren’t located where we need them and many aren’t…
All three major parties promise massive new spending as the provincial election nears. Better they look to Saskatchewan for ideas
By Jason Clemens and Niels Veldhuis The Fraser Institute Ontarians are less than two weeks away from choosing their next provincial government and polls suggest voters are looking for change, with both the Progressive Conservatives and the New Democrats leading the governing Liberals. Unfortunately, none of the three major party platforms include genuine health-care reform,…
By Carole A. Estabrooks and Stephanie A. Chamberlain Contributors Many of us have moms and dads or older friends and relatives in nursing home facilities. We care very much about their well-being and the supports they receive. But who’s caring for the care aides who do the bulk of the front-line work in nursing homes?…
