How do I Finance Care for the Elderly in Canada?
Caring for elderly friends and relatives can be extremely stressful. Watching older loved ones suffer from declining health and the restricted independence that accompanies this decline can be heartbreaking. At some point, you may not even be able to care for your older loved ones yourself. When you add fear about how you can pay for the care of your loved ones to this mix, it almost seems like helping your elderly relatives find the care they need could be too much to bear. But if your elderly loved ones are Canadian, their care is heavily subsidized by federal and local governments.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Determine the level of care that your senior requires. Talk with your senior about whether he or she just needs additional help around the house and with errands, or whether he or she needs to live in an assisted living facility. Find out whether your senior requires full-time professional medical care. Note that this may be a difficult conversation to have, and it is a good idea to have the conversation with your senior's physician. The doctor can help you to realistically evaluate how much care your senior needs.
-
2
Determine the financial resources available to your elderly loved one. Learn whether your senior has income, investments or savings. If your senior plans to move into an assisted care facility, determine whether he or she plans to sell his or her primary residence when this happens. If your senior is wealthy, he or she may have to finance the necessary long-term care. If your senior does not have the means to pay for care, the federal and state governments will help. Note that if you are caring for an elderly couple and one plans to move into an assisted living facility, he or she can receive financial help from the government while the other retains the house.
-
-
3
If your senior requires at-home care and help with chores and errands, rather than full-time assisted living care, visit your local Community Care Access Center. The staff will thoroughly assess your elderly person's needs and recommend the appropriate services. Many of these services are covered by the Ministry of Health funding, regardless of your senior's financial situation. If your elderly person wants additional services, the CCAC can recommend service providers. These services may be subsidized depending upon your senior's financial situation and needs, and the CCAC can help you to find these subsidized services.
-
4
Investigate long-term care options, if your elderly person can no longer--or no longer wants to--stay home. Long-term care homes and programming are financed by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. You only need to find a free spot in the long-term care home of your senior's choosing. The resident is still responsible for the cost of his or her accommodation, however. This cost is exactly the same at every facility and is set by the government annually.
-
5
Determine whether your senior has long-term care insurance. Some elderly people have insurance that will pay for their accommodation costs at the long-term care facility. If your senior has no insurance and no way to pay for the accommodation costs at the long-term care home, his or her room will be subsidized by the government.
-
1
References
- Photo Credit senior image by Joann Cooper from Fotolia.com
