Shifting the Focus to Equity for Care that is Integrated, Accessible and Inclusive.

Building on a key finding from my doctoral work that the promotion of equity in health service delivery is central to rectifying care fragmentation, this presentation demonstrates how Integrated Care Programs across Canada are using policy techniques that promote equity to deliver health and social care to vulnerable aging populations in ways that meet the expressed needs of home care clients and their carers.   Drawing on data collected from 118 interviews with program administrators, paid care workers, unpaid family carers, and elderly clients in five Canadian Integrated Care Programs working in the home care sector, I offer for consideration three promising practices for moving towards person-centred care that is more integrated, accessible and inclusive.  First, using evidence from Ottawa ’s Aging in Place program’s provision of day trips and transportation for clients, I discuss how providing home care services without user fees increases class-based equality among clients to the benefit of the clients and their unpaid carers.Second, referring to practices used in Scarborough ’s Carefirst program and Edmonton’s CHOICE program, I argue that techniques of supporting paid and unpaid carers, such as arranging for paid carers to take time off, providing carers with access to support for emotional labour, and formally acknowledging the work done by carers, all contribute t o the provision of care that is more  integrated, accessible and inclusive.  Showing carers t...
Source: International Journal of Integrated Care - Category: Nursing Source Type: research