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Ontario’s Long-term Care Retirement Homes
Features, facts and figures to help you decideby Maureen Murray
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Ontario’s long-term care retirement homes offer medical and personal support to seniors who need help around the clock. Homes in Ontario are operated by private enterprise, local municipalities or charitable organizations.
In the continuum of accommodations catering to seniors, long-term care retirement homes (in the past, often called nursing homes or homes for the aged) offer the most intensive level of supervision and medical services under one roof. Care in this style of home is of course much more intensive than what you will get in an Adult Living Home, Independent Living residence or in a typical Ontario Retirement Home.
Distinguishing features of long-term care retirement homes
- Province fully funds medical and support services; residents pay only for room and board and there is a subsidy for those who cannot afford the full resident co-payment
- Nobody is refused access on the basis of ability to pay
- Mix of private, municipal and non-profit and charitable operators
- Personal "plan of care" prepared for each resident and assessed every three months
- 24-hour nursing and personal care; access to physician or other health-care professionals
- Medication administered
- Various living arrangements to support residents with cognitive impairment or dementia
- Shared or central dining room and common facilities, such as lounges
- Organized and regularly scheduled recreational and social activities
- Housekeeping and laundry services
- Optional services such as hairdressing usually can be purchased for a fee
- Services and amenities can vary
- Depending on the region, may have waiting lists
Who is eligible for long-term retirement home care?
- Individuals requiring 24-hour nursing care and daily personal support services
- Seniors who are at risk in their own homes
- Priority is based on need as assessed by the Community Care Access Centres
- Residents of Ontario with a valid health card
- People who are unable to live independently in their own homes, even with an array of community supports
How are Ontario long-term care retirement homes regulated?
- Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care monitors, inspects and regulates every long-term care facility in the province
Quick facts about Ontario long-term retirement home care
- Average age of resident is 85 to 86
- 60 % of long-term care patients in Ontario are cognitively impaired
- Ontario has 77,000 long-term care beds
- 20,000 new beds have been added to the system - a 35 per cent increase in capacity - in the past few years
- 16,000 existing beds will be rebuilt by 2006 to upgrade them to current standards
- Province looking to introduce a new Long-Term Care Act
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