CANADA: Supporting Our Seniors

. OTTAWA (The Ottawa Citizen), October 1, 2008: Today is International Day for Older Persons -- a good day to take stock of the contributions our seniors make to our community. They run businesses, volunteer in greater numbers than their younger counterparts and vote. Many of them contributed to creating a city that ranks number one in Canada for quality of life. But today is also a good day to ask if we are doing all we can for our seniors. While most of the 100,000 seniors who call Ottawa home can continue to contribute as they would like, many others are unable to -- the one in 10 who has no support system to help them cope with daily challenges and the one in five who lives in poverty. Many seniors living on low incomes are isolated, living in subsidized housing if they're lucky and substandard accommodation if they're not. They have difficulty accessing services of any kind due to information, language and transportation barriers. For these seniors, the trajectory from living in their homes to living in a hospital or a long-term care facility can be all too quick. A report by the Champlain Local Health Integration Network bears this out: far too many seniors occupying hospital beds could be living on their own if they could access the community support services they need. The solution resides in finding ways to help keep our seniors stay in their own homes, in their neighbourhoods, for as long as possible. An affordable supportive housing program, supported by United Way/Centraide Ottawa, City of Ottawa, LHIN, community groups and the private sector, is a step in the right direction. To be successful, it will require innovative solutions from both public- and private-sector players, and a collective shift in mindset -- one that recognizes and values the immense contributions that our seniors have made to building community and can continue to make as they age in place. Let's use this day as a springboard to shaping a new kind of Ottawa where all our seniors are supported and encouraged. Cal Martell, Ottawa United Way/Centraide Ottawa's Impact Council on Seniors © The Ottawa Citizen 2008