Canada lags behind in caregiver support
Main Category: Caregivers / HomecareArticle Date: 21 May 2005 - 0:00 PDT
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According to a new study, Canada lags behind other western countries in the level of financial support it gives to family caregivers. The international review was conducted as part of the Hidden Costs Invisible Contributions (HCIC) research project. The financial support review was led by Mount Saint Vincent University's (MSVU) Dr. Janice Keefe who found that Australia and the United Kingdom do a better job of financially supporting people looking after a sick relative.
"Most government support in Canada is provided at the provincial level and is aimed at the people who need the care, not those who look after them," says Dr. Keefe, Canada Research Chair in Aging and Caregiving Policy at MSVU. "Recognizing the role of family caregivers and their contributions is important. Many caregivers incur financial expenses or have to stop working to help their loved one, leaving them with no income."
The international review has produced Policy Profiles on caregiver financial support policies in ten countries and these are available at http://www.msvu.ca/mdcaging. These Profiles are one component of a larger study, titled "Hidden Costs/Invisible Contributions: The Marginalization of Dependent Adults," a major collaborative research initiative funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada under the direction of Dr. Janet Fast, University of Alberta.
"I am committed to do research that makes a difference. By researching cash payments, tax relief, pension programs and labour policy available elsewhere at the national level, we can derive what may be relevant for Canada's caregivers," says Dr. Keefe, who just presented her findings to a national forum in Ottawa sponsored by the Policy Research Initiative.
Currently at the national level in Canada, caregivers only have access to tax relief and a short- term paid work leave to provide palliative care. In Australia and the U.K. caregivers are directly paid a certain amount of money, based on need. The U.K. also recently introduced a state pension for low or no-income caregivers. Such initiatives recognize the important role of caregivers in our society.
"Canada should consider a model that provides immediate and long-term financial support for caregivers," says Dr. Keefe. "This is the way forward. The next step is to examine in greater detail how these policies are administered and whether they will work for Canada."
Dr Keefe's work will be presented at a symposium being organized by the HCIC project team and hosted by Trent University in Peterborough.
For more information please contact Janice Keefe on 902 457 6466
Contact: Dr Janice Keefe
janice.keefe@msvu.ca
902-457-6466
University of Alberta
http://www.ualberta.ca
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Caregiving In Canada
posted by Ed Sonnenburg on 17 Mar 2008 at 12:54 pmMarch 17, 2008
There has been a lot of discussion and print about bettering our health care system. Since I've been involved for 15 years in caregiving I may be able to give my perspective.
When seniors get older and need constant care the choice often has to be made to either put them into a care facility or taken in by their children. With so many couples working the choice is made to put parents into a long term care facility.
Almost every day I'm reading stories about poor working conditions in long
term facilities for workers and nurses, the main reason being that there
aren't enough workers.
What I recommend is that those people that want to take on the "job" of taking care of their elderly parents should be encouraged to do so. This would mean a lot less workers are needed and possibly a lot fewer care
facilities would be needed. The patient would be more content, and the caregiver would have peace of mind. A community nurse could look in occasionally so the caregiver doesn't feel all alone and call a doctor if more medicines or help is needed. If a caregiver needs respite for a few hours it could be provided occasionally.
Since the caregiver has a job of looking after their parent, they should get
benefits such as medical and dental care, similar to social services. The
surplus money in the Employment Insurance Fund could be used to give workers
some financial support if they need it. Since older patients usually have
an Old Age Pension and would most likely live with the caregiver there would
be enough financial help.
To encourage people to become their parent's caregivers the inheritance
money they get should be taxed differently so more money goes to the
caregiver when the patient eventually dies. Their wages for looking after
their parent would be deferred until their parent's death, but it would be
substantially more for doing the caregiving job. The government wouldn't be
missing this money because they wouldn't be needing so much to pay to build
long term facilities and all the wages for workers. It costs the taxpayer
far less when caregivers are looking after their own family members. The
patients would receive their proper medicines and other medical help by
their loving children, not paid people in a facility.
Of course for something like this to work the federal and provincial
governments should work together in a non-partisan way. If the federal
government had a good health plan even Ontarians would support such
a plan.That hated $900.00 Ontario health tax could be eliminated.
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