Aging in Place and Aging in Grace: What Seniors In Alberta Really Want
Date
2023-05-29
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Abstract
Home care for seniors in Alberta has been receiving growing public attention. There are many publicly funded longterm care facilities where clients can reside full-time and receive services as residents, but 77% of Canadians want to "age in place". Alberta budgeted $755.1 million for home care services in 2022, and increased the budget to $902.8 million in 2023. It is unclear exactly how this money is being spent, and even more unclear how this money may or may not be meeting the needs of disabled seniors in Alberta. The theoretical framework used as an underpinning for this analysis is critical gerontology as defined by Chong and Gu (2020). Critical gerontology is a way of understanding aging that recognizes aging as not only a physiological process but a socially defined and dynamic phenomenon. Based on the literature and the current policy landscape in Alberta, the report assesses 3 policy options to improve access to quality home care for disabled seniors: maintaining the status quo, increasing regulatory oversight of home care, and reducing the barriers to self-managed care. The analysis recommends that the Government of Alberta pursue reducing barriers to self-managed care for disabled seniors. Increasing access to guided, self-managed home care for seniors in Alberta would be the most effective use of home care budgetary provisions and would be the most feasible compromise between institutional desires and individual needs.
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Keywords
home care, seniors, health policy, disability, critical gerontology
Citation
Hodgson, C. (2023). Aging in Place and Aging in Grace: What Seniors In Alberta Really Want (Unpublished master's project). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB.