York Region seniors’ task force: what do older residents need?

Yorkregion.com
Oct. 30, 2015
By Lisa Queen

With York Region’s greying population booming by almost 150 per cent in just two decades, the region has launched a seniors task force aimed at developing a strategy to address the needs of older residents.

“York Region is set to experience tremendous growth in its senior population. Seniors make up the fastest-growing population group,” Monica Bryce, manager of social policy and community development with the region’s community and health services department told the task force’s first meeting last week.

Between 2011 and 2031, York’s senior population will increase by 148 per cent, almost four times faster than the growth rate of the overall population.

By 2031, 21 per cent, or about one in five York residents, will be aged 65 or older. That is up from 12 per cent in 2011.

York residents are living longer than their national and provincial counterparts.

The average man in the region will live to 82.2 years, three years longer than the provincial average of 79.2 years and almost 3-1/2 years longer than the national average of 78.8 years.

The average woman in York will live to 85.8 years, more than two years longer than the provincial average of 83.6 years and 2-1/2 years longer than the national average of 83.3 years.

Overall, the average York resident will live to 84.1 years, while the average Ontarian will live to 81.5 years and the average Canadian will live to 81.1 years.

“Municipalities, provinces and countries everywhere are coming to terms with the challenges and opportunities posed by an aging population,” Bryce said.

“The goal of the seniors strategy is to ensure that as the growth in the seniors’ population accelerates, the region’s role will evolve in the right ways.”

The global aging population can be credited to public policy and public health practices such as immunization, safe water, non-smoking campaigns and healthy living initiatives, which have allowed people to live longer, Bryce said.

While some jurisdictions are only dealing with an aging population, York will have to provide services to a population growing in all demographics, she said.

With the region’s limited financial resources to provide services to a growing population, the task force will investigate if services and programs for seniors should be provided universally or geared to older residents with lower incomes.

The task force will also have to address the growing need for paramedic services. Thirty-four per cent of York residents aged 75 and older have been transported by ambulance.

Other areas the task force could explore include housing and transportation needs.

The region is just one provider of senior services in a very complex system, Adelina Urbanski, the region’s community and health services commissioner, said.

The task force will help pinpoint what the region’s role and responsibilities should be, she said.

The area of seniors in general is big and it’s complicated and there’s a lot of information and it’s not an easy, discreet - distinct to one jurisdiction - thing,” she said.

Meanwhile, the strategy must reflect the fact there is no such thing as a typical senior, Urbanski said.

“Seniors are quite a varied group and the changes and the adaptation that we’re going to have to make (to accommodate their needs) as time goes on is going to have to reflect that. We have younger seniors, we have different lifestyles, even the category of senior, it could be very hard to quantify,” she said.

“So, the one-size-fits-all approach probably won’t work for this kind of a task force and we’re going to have to be adaptable as a region, as a provider of services, as we move on.”

Seniors have a broad range of skills, needs and abilities, differences in physical and mental health, variations in their ability to pay for services and a range of generational and cultural perspectives, Urbanski said.