October 5, 2017
Patients, Families to Benefit from 2.6 Million More Hours of Home Care Across Province
Ontario is strengthening home and community care across the province for patients and their families, by increasing access to services by an estimated 2.6 million additional hours and developing new patient- and family-friendly supports.
Dr. Eric Hoskins, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, was at Kensington Gardens in Toronto to announce a major new expansion of home care supports and services across Ontario.
With this expansion, home care patients and those who care for them will benefit from approximately:
- 1.5 million additional hours of personal support services, which includes help with bathing, dressing and exercising.
- 390,000 additional hours of nursing care, which includes one-on-one care from a nurse for services such as palliative care, wound care and dressing changes.
- 110,000 additional hours of therapy, which includes speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy services.
- 600,000 additional hours of respite services for caregivers, such as personal support or nursing, so that they can schedule breaks for rest, family commitments or other priorities.
The province will also be:
- Creating new, innovative self-directed care models to provide eligible clients and caregivers with more control over their care. This will include the establishment of a new personal support services organization in early 2018.
- Launching a new caregiver organization in spring 2018, which will provide support and resources across the province, including a single access point for information, resources and services to help them in their roles.
- Introducing a new framework for home-care assessments and planning based on the level of care needed by an individual, to improve consistency and transparency of available services. The framework will give clients and caregivers more predictability about how much home care they have access to.
- Providing additional funding for community supports, such as meals on wheels and day programs that support clients and caregivers.
Ontario is increasing access to care, reducing wait times and improving the patient experience through its Patients First Action Plan for Health Care and OHIP+: Children and Youth Pharmacare Program – protecting health care today and into the future.
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Press release was provided by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.