As the population of Montreal ages, more and more seniors in Park Extension are looking for home care. This is not a Park-Ex phenomenon only and it represents part of the major shift towards home care that the government of Quebec announced on March 25th that it wants to deal with. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé, and the Minister responsible for Seniors and Caregivers, Marguerite Blais, announced that the Health and Welfare Commissioner (CSBE), Ms. Joanne Castonguay, will analyze the performance of government programs to improve home care and support services.
In a situation where the number of seniors will increase significantly over the next decade and staying at home is the aspiration of the vast majority, the government wishes to pursue the major shift towards home care. In order for the government to make the right choices there is a need for a commissioner whose mandate will be to draw a portrait of the current situation of home care and support services offered in Québec and to document the evolution of future needs in terms of home support. The Commissioner begins her mandate now and will submit her recommendations no later than December 2023, with an interim report in December 2022.
“The pandemic has highlighted significant challenges that we must address quickly to meet the needs of Quebecers and so that we never experience such a situation again. This is why our government wishes to improve its home support offer to allow people who wish to do so to stay at home, in order to preserve their autonomy as much as possible. I have full confidence in the team of the Health and Welfare Commissioner, as an independent entity, to guide us on what we need to put in place to improve the way we take care of our clienteles, especially the elderly. “ said Christian Dubé, Minister of Health and Social Services
In Quebec, in 2020-2021, 397,702 people received home support services and 72% of them were over 65 years old. This represents a total of 24.4 million hours of services offered in this way. However, for the same period, more than 41,000 people were waiting for home support services.
