THUNDER BAY -- The impact of aging baby boomers on the local health system has begun to stretch resources and demand is expected to escalate for the next 20 years.
At its monthly board meeting on Tuesday, the North West Local Health Integration Network committed to a $4.8-million, one-time funding injection for the Community Care Access Centre that will bring Thunder Bay home care services back under capacity.
The latest September figures show the CCAC has 124 people on a waitlist for personal support services. Its CEO Tuija Puiras said the funding won’t eliminate that list but it will alleviate the strain.
“We continue to see year-over-year extreme pressure on home care services,” Puiras said.
“Some of it is related, in the short term, to the closure of Grandview Lodge and Dawson Court and the transition to Hogarth Riverview Manor. Once that transition is complete, some of the immediate pressures will eventually lessen to some degree but we have an aging population and also a chronic disease rate that is higher than elsewhere in the province.”
It’s not the first time the LHIN has committed one-time funds to the CCAC’s capacity issues. While the LHIN’s $51-million annual funding to the CCAC increased only $304,000 between 2014 and 2015, the LHIN provided the CCAC $4.09 million in one-time funding in 2014.
As the LHIN increased the CCAC’s base budget by half of a percentage point, it has been approving additional eight and nine per cent increases in one-time funding.
North West LHIN senior director of health systems performance, Brian Ktytor said injecting funds into the CCAC rather than increasing base funding reflects flexibility in long-term planning.
“It’s transitionary. We’re working on a year-to-year basis,” he said.
“The difference is when you put the funding into their base, it’s there in perpetuity. When you do one-time funding, it’s there for the fiscal (year). So it’s a multi-year plan. It’s not going into the base on a permanent basis.”
The health care needs of the baby boom generation in the region are projected to peak in 2034 as the system strain progresses from home care through assisted living and finally, to long term care.
That progression is happening quickly, however. Ktytor predicts the CCAC will need additional support through most of the next fiscal year. Then between 2017 and 2018, the LHIN forecasts Thunder Bay will need 150 new long-term care and assisted living beds.
The hard-smoking, hard-drinking, sedentary lifestyle of Northwestern Ontario is exacerbating the baby boomers' impact on the health system. Many are showing complex, chronic, and multiple conditions that increase the urgency of their care.
The key for long-term stability, Ktytor explained, lies in changing that lifestyle so the next generation bump is able to age independently until later in life.
“While we’re working on this in the short and medium terms, ultimately we need to reduce the need for assisted living, supportive housing and long-term care,” he said.
“That’s why I say we need to deal with chronic disease, the high rate of smoking, alcohol and obesity and other aspects of making a population healthier.”
