Considerations regarding Incorporating a Cash-for-care Program in Ontario's Approach to Care for Older Adults

Abstract

Ontario, like Canada more generally, has an aging population, which will exert further pressures on the approaches to providing care to older persons. Certain of these pressures are outlined, with the aid of population projections. Many developed countries, most of which have aging populations, have adopted various approaches to care provision for older adults, which differ from Ontario’s approach in certain ways. Ariaans et al. (2021) developed a typology based on the approaches used in 25 OECD countries but did not include Canada or Ontario in the analysis. This thesis analyzes the care approach used in Ontario along the dimensions developed by Ariaans et al. (2021) to place it within the typology used by Ariaans et al. (2021). A measure used by Ariaans et al. (2021) is whether a cash-for-care program is included. Ontario’s approach does not incorporate a cash-for-care program, whereas some other countries’ approaches do include a cash-for-care program. A scoping review was performed to identify and report on the benefits and disbenefits of a cash-for-care program, identified in the literature, and five themes were revealed. A form of framework analysis was used for more detailed exploration of the gender engraining aspects of cash-for-care programs. The discussion has special relevance to any proposed intervention, such as introduction of a cash-for-care program, because women play a disproportionately large role as carers, both paid and unpaid, and as care recipients in long-term care homes, and may be adversely affected.