HEALTHCARE FOR THE ELDERLY

Providing health care for the elderly has never been more challenging. Addressing the needs of both seniors and the elderly in a holistic fashion is increasingly seen not only as the key to improving the quality of life of today’s elderly, but as a means of staving off high levels of chronic illness among the boomers who will follow – while enabling the healthcare system to have long term sustainability. Attend this event and learn:

• What impact the boomers are expected to have on healthcare economics
• The challenges primary care professionals face in caring for the elderly and how they are being addressed
• How Emergency wait times and ALC placement is being improved
• What impact the Aging At Home initiative is having on the lives of today’s elderly
• What role technology can play in supporting healthcare for the elderly
• Why creating supports for family caregivers is critical to future success in elder care
• Current thinking on future sustainability of healthcare delivery to seniors and
  the elderly
• How cities of the future will need to respond: The Halifax response to the
  WHO Document on creating “Age-Friendly Cities”

PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS

Dr. Fred Mather 
Chair, Committee on Health Care of the Elderly
College of Family Physicians of Canada

Dr. Wendy Graham 
Blue Sky Family Health Team
Assistant Professor
University of Ottawa
Past President
Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (AFHTO)

KEYNOTE ADDRESSES

Shades of Grey: The Impact of Aging on Health Care in Canada

Christopher Kuchciak, MA
Manager of Health Expenditures
Canadian Institute for Health Information

Creating Age-Friendly Cities

Valerie White
Chief Executive Officer, Nova Scotia Department of Seniors

• Hospitals:
  • Chief Executive Officers
  • Chief of Medicine
  • Chiefs of Family Practice
  • Directors of Primary Care Initiatives
  • Geriatrics Specialists
• Family Care Networks, Family Health Groups, Community Health Centres and Family Practices:
  • Executive Directors
  • Physicians, Specialists in Geriatrics, including
    Mental Health
  • Nurses, Nurse Practitioners
  • Therapists, Pharmacists
  • Nutritionists, Physiotherapists
  • Counselors and other providers
• Government Officials:
  • Ministers, Deputy and
    Assistant Deputy Ministers
  • Health Policy Planners
  • Health Policy Analysts and Advisors

• Regional Health Authorities
• Owners and Operators of Seniors’ Facilities
  • Chief Executive Officers
  • Presidents, Vice-Presidents
  • General Managers
  • Directors of Property Development
• Associations and Colleges for:
  • Physicians, Specialists
  • Nurses, Nurse Practitioners
  • Psychologists, Pharmacists
  • Occupational Therapists
  • And Other Allied Healthcare Professionals
• Organizations Focused on
  Caring for the Elderly
• Healthcare Lawyers and
  Healthcare Consultants

Dear Colleague:

Caring for the elderly is quickly emerging as the next significant challenge facing our healthcare system as baby boomers age and place greater demands on health services. When combined with an overall increase in chronic diseases such as diabetes, the strain on available healthcare resources as boomers become elderly will become increasingly difficult to address, as there will be many more people with complex health issues. Even now, the trend of what lies ahead is beginning to emerge, as increasing numbers of the elderly are living longer both as a result of improved health technology and public health education, for example the anti-smoking campaign. However, although many are living longer, they are also frail physically and require higher levels of support.

Recognizing that spending on healthcare cannot continue to increase indefinitely especially with a shrinking labour force, provincial governments have been adopting strategies to keep seniors at home longer and out of more expensive hospitals and long term care facilities. However, implementing these strategies often comes with their own sets of challenges since success depends on having adequate community supports in place, something which is often difficult especially in more rural and remote locations and for some population groups.

In addition, some seniors discover that the retirement lifestyle they envisaged at the beginning has not materialized, and particularly when their partner dies, find themselves isolated and alone. Many also have mental health and addiction issues that can be a challenge to detect and address, especially where keeping their driving licence is at stake. There are many variations on these and other issues that will continue to surface as the population ages. There has been considerable progress made already in recognizing and addressing many of the systemic issues in caring for the elderly, and we still have an opportunity to get many more of them right for the future.

This conference, produced by Insight Information, will provide a forum for interactive discussion with leading professionals about how they approach care delivery to the elderly in their community and assist them to live actively and independently for as long as possible, and to manage the transition to long term care with dignity. It’s one conference we’re sure you won’t want to miss.

Sincerely,

Dr. Fred Mather 
Chair, Committee on Health Care of the Elderly
College of Family Physicians of Canada

Dr. Wendy Graham 
Blue Sky Family Health Team
Assistant Professor
University of Ottawa
Past President
Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (AFHTO)

MONDAY | JANUARY 18, 2010

8:15 | 9:00

Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00 | 9:05

Welcoming Remarks from Insight Information

9:05 | 9:15

Opening Remarks from the Co-Chair

Dr. Fred Mather
Chair, Committee on Health Care of the Elderly
College of Family Physicians of Canada

9:15 | 10:00

Shades of Grey: The Impact of Aging on Health Care in Canada

Christopher Kuchciak, MA
Manager of Health Expenditures
Canadian Institute for Health Information

10:00 | 10:15

Networking Coffee Break

10:15 | 11:45

Seniors and Primary Care: Challenges for Primary Care Practitioners

Jessica Cummings, M.A., M.S.W., R.S.W., C.A.C.P.T., C.A.T.A.
Social Worker
Southlake Academic Family Health Team
Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine
Adjucnt Lecturer, Factor-Iwentash Faculty of Social Work
University of Toronto
Adjunct Lecturer, Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work
Wilfrid Laurier University

Lynne Lawrie
Consultant
nD-Insight

Michele MacDonald Werstuck, RD., M.Sc., CDE 
Dietitian
Hamilton Family Health Team

Dr. Fred Mather 
Chair, Committee on Health Care of the Elderly
College of Family Physicians of Canada

• Innovative approaches to nutrition-related problems associated with aging
  • an inter-professional approach to identify older adults at nutritional risk, including approaches to screening
• Options for maximizing capacity for providing care including connecting with an inter-professional team and using group medical visits
• How to modify education sessions for older adults
• Accessing a library of patient and provider resources
• What are the incentives, and the barriers, to looking after seniors
• What are some new approaches that work well for seniors
  • e.g. advanced access, team based care, group medical appointments
• The economics of caring for seniors
  • are the capitation model and FFS models inadequate?
  • how many seniors is enough in any practice?
  • should physicians be able to refuse care for seniors?
  • should the funding model be changed?
• The new wellness approach to seniors’ health
  • how well is this being received by seniors themselves? Do seniors cooperate?
• Geriatric mental health and addiction
  • recognizing dementia
  • dealing with the boomer bulge in dementia care
  • driving and dementia – how big is the problem?
    - criteria for denying licence renewal
    - what legalities are involved?
    
  • loneliness, depression, addiction problems
• Seniors who retire to the cottage and find it isn’t what they expected – care challenges
• POA and legal issues in providing care for the elderly
  • advance directive/health care planning
• Elder abuse; recognizing and reporting it
  • recent cases; could they have been prevented?
• Providing palliative care
• Challenges of dealing with more ethnically diverse senior populations

11:45 | 12:30

Delivering Care to Seniors in Ethnic Communities

Helen Leung 
Chief Executive Officer
Carefirst Seniors & Community Services Association

• The issues and challenges involved in serving ethnic seniors
• Case illustration – chronic disease prevention and management
• How the Carefirst diabetes program for seniors was established
• Best practices in delivering care to a specific community

12:30 | 1:45

Networking Luncheon

1:45 | 2:30

Current Initiatives of Ontario’s Regional Geriatric Programs: Identifying and Improving Outcomes for the Frail Elderly

Dr. John Puxty
Chief of Staff, Providence Care, Kingston
Chair, Regional Geriatric Program of Ontario

The RGPs of Ontario, in collaboration with others, seek to improve healthcare outcomes of seniors through increased awareness and dissemination of evidence-based strategies of identification and targeting of those at increased risk of adverse outcomes.

Illustrative examples of the role of RGPs in building system capacity will be shared from several recent strategies including:

• The Geriatrics, Inter-professional Practice and Inter-organizational Collaboration (GiiC) Project
• Geriatric Emergency Management Program
• Senior Friendly Hospital Framework

2:30 | 2:45

Networking Refreshment Break

2:45 | 4:00

Improving Emergency Wait Times and ALC Placement

Dr. Wendy Graham
Blue Sky Family Health Team
Assistant Professor, University of Ottawa
Past President
Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (AFHTO)

Lynn Huizer
Senior Director, Health System Integration
North Simcoe Muskoka LHIN

Jacques S. Lee MD, MSc, FRCPC
Director of Research and Scholarly Activity
Department of Emergency Services and Scientist, Clinical Epidemiology Unit
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center

• Reducing the impact that seniors have on ED wait times
  • reducing hospital length of stay (LOS) through delirium prevention
  • other tools that can be used to limit seniors’ hospital LOS
• ALC placement; improving co-ordination with community organizations
• Building greater awareness of what organizations exist
• The criteria to access community services

4:00 | 4:45

The Evolution of Long Term Care

Noreen Langdon
Administrator
Peter D. Clark Long Term Care Centre
Long Term Care Branch
Social Service Department, City of Ottawa

• History of development: The Municipality rebuilds under Ministry of Health “D” facility replacement guidelines and responds to a Community Partner
• Alzheimer’s Bungalows: Partnership with Ottawa Alzheimer’s Society
• The Design Principles: Form and function
• How physical design influences resident quality of life: the research and the experience
• Eight years later: Evaluation process and outcomes

4:45

Conference Adjourns

TUESDAY | JANUARY 19, 2010

8:15 | 9:00

Continental Breakfast

9:00 | 9:15

Opening Remarks from the Co-Chair

Dr. Wendy Graham
Blue Sky Family Health Team
Assistant Professor, University of Ottawa
Past President
Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (AFHTO)

9:15 | 10:00

Creating Age-Friendly Cities

Valerie White
Chief Executive Officer
Nova Scotia Department of Seniors

Halifax, Nova Scotia was one of four Canadian cities involved in the international age-friendly work of the World Health Organization. (WHO) - the Age-friendly Cities Project. Following its international and national work on age-friendly initiatives, in 2008, the Nova Scotia Department of Seniors made a commitment to supporting community-based solutions to population aging. This presentation will share information on community-based initiatives and key models of practice. Making communities age-friendly is one of the most effective policy approaches for responding to demographic aging.

10:00 | 10:15

Networking Coffee Break

10:15 | 11:30

Aging at Home: Elements of a Successful Strategy

Cathy Hecimovich
Chief Executive Officer
Central West CCAC

James Meloche
Senior Director, Planning, Integration and Community Engagement
Central East LHIN

Vania Sakelaris
Director, Program Development
Toronto Central LHIN

In recent years there have been several initiatives undertaken to meet the higher level of needs of seniors who continue to live at home even as their mobility decreases. This session takes a look at the goals, challenges and success in implementing these programs, lessons learned and whether there are still gaps in care that are not yet adequately addressed.

• Aging At Home is a major Ontario provincial strategy designed to keep seniors healthy and in their homes longer
  • what impact has this initiative had to date, and expected to have moving into the last year of the strategy?
• Challenges to providing care for seniors in the community (which includes home care, as well as community support services such as housekeeping, meals-on-wheels,
  yard work, home repairs, transportation – especially in rural areas)
• Opportunities to enhance community care for seniors and their caregivers

11:30 | 12:30

The Role Technology Can Play in Supporting Healthcare for the Elderly

Frank-D. Knoefel, BSc, MD, CCFP (CoE), MPA
Co-Lead, TAFETA project, Elisabeth Bruyère Research Institute
Vice-President, Medical Affairs, Bruyère Continuing Care

The ratio of persons 65+ year old to the labour force (15-64 years) is expected to rise from 25% in 2005 to 52% in 2020. We also know that as people age, they accumulate chronic illnesses and physical and cognitive challenges. On the other hand, we have seen an exponential change in technology our society is using over the last decades. As the number of clinicians caring for the elderly is not expected to increase in the foreseeable future, researchers are turning to technology to help support the aging Boomers, who expect to
“age at home.” This presentation will look at some technology already being used, and others being researched to support “aging at home.”

• Technology has impacted our society in every way
• Multi-disciplinary teams of specialists from health care partnering with specialists from high technology have come up with creative ways of supporting “aging at home”
• Examples of smart home technology (such as TAFETA), Robotics, and Telehealth will be discussed

The Revolution That Won’t Wait: How the Internet is Changing Health Care

David Murray
Executive Director
Waterloo Wellington CCAC

• Truly patient centred systems
• Healthcare “welcomes” Microsoft, Yahoo and Google
• Empowering patients and families – a new form of advocacy
• Tools for self assessment, self management and diarizing care
• Portals, Vaults and Registries
• Blurring the borders between services
• The world of virtual care
• Getting ahead of the curve

12:30 | 1:45

Networking Luncheon

1:45 | 2:45

Creating Supports for Family Caregivers

Dr. Gordon Atherley
President
Virtual Care International

Joan Lesmond
Executive Director, Community Engagement / Foundation
Saint Elizabeth Health Care

Kate Reed
Senior Integration Consultant
Portfolio Lead for Seniors
Central East LHIN

Robert Ridge
President and CEO
MedicAlert Canada

• Value of recognizing the impact on family caregivers and creating effective strategies that will enhance support
• The important role of coalitions in advancing the interests of family caregivers
• Creating networks and system for knowledge exchange among caregivers, researchers, policy and management stakeholders to improve care quality
• Using tax incentives to encourage families to do more
  • alleviating the economic burden resulting from people taking time off work to be family caregivers
• Is there increasing recognition in the workplace of the need for employees to manage personal responsibilities whether child care or elder care?
• Providing caregiver support through third party medical information management
• Security risks brought to seniors, their families and their family caregivers by information technology
• How family caregivers are viewed in other countries

2:45 | 3:00

Networking Refreshment Break

3:00 | 4:30

The Future of Care for the Elderly: Building a Sustainable System

Susan Thorning
Chief Executive Officer
Ontario Community Support Association

Paul Williams
Health Policy, Management and Evaluation
Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Kim Wilson
Executive Director
Canadian Coalition for Seniors Mental Health

Sue VanderBent
Executive Director
Ontario Home Care Association

• The impact of the Senate Report
• What other countries have done to meet increasing demand
• Changes in living arrangements to better suit an elderly population
• Innovation and new programs designed to improve the quality of life of seniors, and reduce morbidity and mortality as well as save the costs for the system overall
• The roles of the public and private sectors in delivering care to the elderly
  • coordinating private care through a public system
  • cross-collaboration between public healthcare and private developers in community/facility design
• The expanding role of the home and community care sector in maintaining independence and caring for the elderly in Ontario
  • the role of the home care sector in addressing system issues such as ALC, Emergency Department use, linkages with key stakeholders such as family physicians and specialist physicians, recent integrated client care initiatives
  • the important role of collaboration between Associations in the home and community care system and recent research and project work and on-line education initiatives to further our mission as “the voice of home care in Ontario’”
  • technological innovations in passive and active monitoring systems to enhance independence and finally the role of the home care system in a pandemic

4:30

Register 3 delegates for the main conference at regular price at the same time and you’re entitled to register a fourth person from your organization at no charge. For other group discounts, please call 1-888-777-1707. All discounts must be redeemed when booking, discounts will not be valid or applied after this time.