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Winter 2010

Aging at Home – Balance of Care Research Group

Why is it that many older persons with relatively high needs can age successfully at home, while others with similar needs require residential long-term care (LTC)?

For the past three years, the Balance of Care Research Group, led by HPME faculty member Paul Williams, has been analyzing individual and system-level factors impacting on the ability of older persons to age successfully at home. Their findings are now informing Aging at Home strategies in Ontario’s Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) and Community Care Access Centres (CCACs).

To date, projects have been conducted in nine regions in Ontario. In each region, panels of local experts spanning the care continuum (LHINs, CCACs, hospitals, LTC, community agencies, primary care) have drawn on their first-hand knowledge of local needs and resources to estimate how many older persons waiting for LTC could be supported safely and cost-effectively at home if given access to community-based care packages.

The group’s findings have been remarkable:

  • Between a quarter and a half of wait-listed older persons could potentially remain at home
  • An inability to perform common everyday tasks including meals preparation, housekeeping, and medications management is a common “trigger” for an LTC placement
  • Because of a lack of community-based services, including transportation, many older persons in rural and remote areas are directed to LTC even at relatively low levels of need.

The Balance of Care Research Group, which includes HPME doctoral students Kerry Kuluski, Jillian Watkins, Allie Peckham, and Frances Morton, is part of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) Team in Community Care and Health Human Resources. Professors Raisa Deber and Williams co-direct the team.