About 8 million people – about one in four Canadian adults – are caregivers.FredFroese/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
“Millions of Canadians are navigating caregiving with minimal support, and it’s simply unacceptable,” says Liv Mendelsohn, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence.
Well stated.
A lot of attention is being paid these days to the dismal state of primary care, and rightfully so given that 6.5 million Canadians don’t have ready access to a family doctor.
But let’s not forget that the vast majority of care is provided not by medical practitioners, but by family members who feed, bathe, toilet, dress, medicate and otherwise care for their loved ones. Not to mention helping with their finances, house cleaning, transport, and more.
About 8 million people – about one in four Canadian adults – are caregivers. On average, they contribute about 5.1 hours daily of care. And they do so long-term, for an average of 4.6 years.
In other words, an almost-full-time job, unpaid. This, in addition to their paid work, school, and other duties like childrearing. The burden can be crushing.
While we often associate caregiving with the care of elders, a significant number of caregivers take care of children, teens and younger adults with physical, developmental and psychiatric disabilities, and do so for a lifetime.
Yet, as Ms. Mendelsohn noted, there is very little support. And despite the aging population, and the growing number of Canadians living with chronic conditions and disabilities, there is no coherent plan to help caregivers.
In its 2024 budget, the Liberal government promised a National Caregiving Strategy. Or, more precisely, its “intention to launch consultations on the development of a National Caregiving Strategy.” As with many such government initiatives, it’s puttering along with no urgency.
Thankfully, the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence has done the heavy lifting. On Tuesday, the CCCE is releasing its own version of a National Caregiving Strategy.
The document is as thorough as it is sensible. It focuses on five priority areas to make caregiving more equitable and sustainable in Canada: Improve financial supports, programs and services for caregivers; support caregivers in the work force and in education; strengthen support for care recipients; build a sustainable paid care workforce; and federal leadership and recognition.
If the federal government was serious about its promise to improve the lot of caregivers, it would embrace this strategy in toto, and then put some serious dollars into giving the strategy life.
The vast majority of caregivers carry out their duties willingly and lovingly. But caregiving can take a toll, mentally, physically and financially. Caregiving also requires some skills and training. Prenatal parenting courses are almost the norm now. But more people care for aging loved ones than children these days. So where are the elder-care courses? After all, changing the incontinence pad of an 80-year-old man with dementia is a lot more difficult than changing a newborn’s diaper.
In a previous report, “Caring In Canada,” the CCCE painted a portrait of caregivers that featured some disturbing data.
One in four caregivers described their mental health as fair or poor; one in three said they were overwhelmed. More than half felt financial stress. Almost one in four said they spent more than $1,000 out-of-pocket each month on caring for loved ones. (Medicare provides hospital and physician care at no cost, but many necessities are not covered, like incontinence pads, mobility aides, food supplements, physiotherapy, and home-care services like bathing and toileting.)
The new CCCE strategy repeats many recommendations that have been made previously to address these problems, including improving policies around leave for caregivers, not limiting EI-like programs to end-of-life care, simplifying the Disability Tax Credit, bolstering the Registered Disability Savings Plan, and increasing benefits like the Canada Disability Benefit and the Medical Expense Tax Credit.
In other words, a lot of the necessary programs are in place, but they just haven’t kept pace with the needs of caregivers. Those are relatively easy fixes.
To its credit, the CCCE’s strategy doesn’t neglect the needs of paid caregivers, and advocates for providing personal-support workers, home-care aides and others with a decent living wage and benefits, as well as training. Canada’s shortage of qualified care workers is dire.
The CCCE’s call for federal leadership on this issue resonates. The first call for a national caregiving strategy was made by a Senate committee back in 2009.
Action is long overdue. Especially now that caregivers are the last line of defence. Without the daily contributions of Canada’s largely silent army of caregivers, our health and social welfare systems would be collapsing a lot faster than they already are.