It’s an issue that cannot wait: how do we deal with the pressing challenges of an aging of society and avoid the looming fiscal costs and social failure that we face unless we get serious.
Two recent reports, by experts in the field, argue that we must act now to design the policies needed for healthy living for most seniors and decent care for those who need it, given the pace and costs of an aging society. But given scarce public resources and inadequate private savings, how do we design systems of long-term care and community living in the most effective and satisfying way?
The first report, “Aging Well,” was written by Don Drummond, Duncan Sinclair, and Rebekah Bergen, and published by Queen’s University. It warns that we need to address what it calls “the coming surge in seniors.” In this report the authors argue that we are putting far too many people into long-term care facilities when this is not needed and, moreover, is much more expensive than home-care support which many seniors would prefer.