Practice Tools

• Canada
• Ontario
• racialized older adults
• Disability
• 2024
• Home Care

Towards Just Care (TJC) is a community-engaged research project. We research existing home care systems and engage various communities to imagine more socially just alternatives to long-term residential care (LTRC). Towards Just Care has put together this toolkit for:

• People fighting to access quality home care
• Home care workers fighting to make a living wage
• People passionate about improving disability and senior care in Canada
• Communities fighting for the rights and wellbeing of migrant workers in Canada
• Social movements fighting against health care privatization
• All those fighting, dreaming, and organizing for a more just future, where we all have the support and community connections we need to thrive

The toolkit is particularly useful for those who want to fight for a more just system of care and support. It provides tools for movements and individuals to:

• Identify who is making money from our current systems
• Find and use supports within the system (for both home care receivers and workers)
• Make informed choices about how to access and participate in home care systems

The toolkit can also help groups to work together to improve Ontario’s home care systems for both low-income care receivers and direct care workers by:

• Addressing current failures built into home care systems
• Challenging the lack of supports, funding, and status of care receivers and care workers by highlighting their perspectives on home care
• Identifying ways to resist cutbacks (scarcity) and create more abundance in our care systems
•  Imagining home and community based care models and practices, that honour the needs of care workers and their communities, and care receivers and their communities
• Expanding public understanding, support, and movements for new futures, including vibrant and just home care systems
  
  

Source: Toward Just Care

• Canada
• Prevention
• Frauds and Scams
• 2022
• Online safety

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) has compiled a toolkit specifically designed for senior Canadians (60+) to raise public awareness and prevent victimization. We encourage all of our partners to use the resources in this toolkit on their website, in print and on their social media platforms. It contains information about the most common scams and strategies to keep safe.

Source: Canadian Anti Fraud Centre

• Canada
• Frauds and Scams
• Frauds
• 2022
• digital literacy

This project, in partnership with HelpAge Canada, explored best practices for building digital literacy among older adults. HelpAge Canada is a national charity focused exclusively on supporting older persons in Canada and around the world. As part of their work, HelpAge Canada developed Dig-IT, a national digital literacy program for low-income older adults. The program partners with community organizations providing devices, data, training,
and IT support. The goal of this community engagement initiative was to understand the barriers and enablers to building digital literacy among older adults from multiple perspectives. Qualitative interviews were conducted with experts in the field, organizations providing digital literacy training and education to older adults, and volunteers and participants in the Dig-IT program.

Source: Help Age Canada

• Canada
• Ontario
• LGBTQ
• Long Term Care
• senior services
• 2022

The City of Toronto's Seniors Services and Long-Term Care division (SSLTC) has released Leading & Learning WITH PRIDE: A Revitalized Tool Kit on Supporting 2SLGBTQI+ Seniors. "This revitalized Tool Kit strives to:

1. Advance respectful, inclusive and affirming care for 2SLGBTQI+ seniors in Toronto by
   • • • Building individual knowledge and skills among SSLTC staff and other service providers in the delivery of support to 2SLGBTQI+ seniors
       • Building organizational capacity among SSLTC and other seniors support organizations in the creation of inclusive environments for 2SLGBTQI+ seniors
2. Reduce stigma, discrimination, and other barriers in LTC, healthcare, retirement, homecare, and community-based services for 2SLGBTQI+ seniors in Toronto
3. Meaningfully improve the lives of 2SLGBTQI+ seniors in Toronto by treating them with empathy, compassion, and dignity
   
   

It is a resource for any and all service providers and care partners working to support 2SLGBTQI+ seniors (e.g., long-term care homes, retirement homes, hospitals, social service settings, homecare agencies, other community-based organizations). Content might also be relevant to those providing support and allyship to 2SLGBTQI+ seniors, such as family, friends, community members, caregivers, and substitute decision makers.

Source: City of Toronto's Seniors Services and Long-Term Care (SSLTC) 

• Ontario
• LGBTQ
• Long Term Care
• 2021

"This resource features promising practices to help move long-term care homes towards becoming safe, welcoming and inclusive spaces for the LGBTQI2S+ community.

Estimates point to roughly 10% of the general population being LGBTQI2S+, so we know that this community exists in care homes. Throughout their lives, many LGBTQI2S+ older adults in Canada have faced systemic discrimination and oppression based on their sexual and gender identities. This has been particularly prevalent within the health care system, which has resulted in a breakdown of trust in mainstream health care providers (Qmunity, n.d.).

This package was developed as a supplement to the presentation delivered at the AdvantAge Ontario Convention on “A Home for All: Making Long-Term Care Welcoming for LGBTQI2S+ People” in May 2019. This work stems from the Ontario CLRI’s Supporting Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group."

Source: Ontario Centres for Learning, Research & Innovation in Long-Term Care