There is a growing surge of isolation and loneliness in our communities.

Social isolation affects all ages, in every level of society, and results in serious health consequences. Last year the British Parliament appointed Tracey Crouch to address the issue in their country and in our city, Vancouver released its year long study on the problem shortly
afterwards.

These events caught the attention of the public and resulted in a minor media storm which eventually faded away.

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Budget 2019 just dropped and universal pharmacare wasn’t included. Instead the government announced plans to develop a national “Canadian Drug Agency” to negotiate drug prices. Experts are saying that this could be a step towards universal coverage that would make drugs free for all — but that it doesn’t guarantee it — and that corporations Read more about Pharmacare Petition[…]

The Government of Canada has created a Minister of Seniors. The goals of the Minister of Seniors are to help the government better understand and make decisions on the needs of Canadian seniors and ensure that programs and services are developed that respond to Canada’s aging population. This will provide Canadian seniors and future retirees greater security and a better quality of life.

The Honourable Filomena Tassi, the Minister of Seniors, has received her mandate letter which outlines her top priorities. […]

In the July, 2018 cabinet shuffle Prime Minister Justin Trudeau created a new federal ministry to address seniors’ issues and appointed Hamilton-area MP Filomena Tassi as Minister of Seniors. (https://pm.gc.ca/eng/minister/honourable-filomena-tassi)

This position will help the government “better understand the needs of Canadian seniors and ensure that programs and services are developed that respond to Canada’s aging population,” Trudeau’s office says.

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At the 2018 biennial convention in Halifax, the most popular resolution was for “Implementing Universal Access to Necessary Medicines”, co-sponsored by the LPC(BC), LPC(O) and the National Caucus.

Today the federal government launched the Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare. […]

Seniors Week ended in BC on June 9, 2018. Isobel MacKenzie, Seniors Advocate for BC wants to use more positive language when discussion older citizens of BC. For example, we should not say that seniors are a problem to be solved or a cost curve to be bent. We should be talking about the fact Read more about BC Seniors Advocate Wants To Change Conversation Around Aging[…]

Canada has undertaken a $41 million study on aging which will follow more than 50,000 Canadians for at least the next two decades to get an idea of how our health evolves as we age. Apparently our seniors are well – the first report of the study finds more than 90% of participants aged 45-85 Read more about The Good News About Aging[…]

Close to 17% of Canada’s population is 65 or older. By 2031, Statistics Canada projects that one in four Canadians will be seniors.

With Canada’s population aging, maintaining the status quo for seniors health care is not an option. Our health care system was designed a half-century ago, and it has not kept pace with the issues of the elderly in Canada. Today, seniors need better solutions, services and support.

Faced with that reality, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) has been demanding that a national seniors strategy be implemented by 2019.

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An article published an article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) estimates the cost of universal public coverage of prescription drugs in Canada. The authors are Steven G. Morgan PhD, Michael Law PhD, Jamie R. Daw BHSc, MSc, Liza Abraham BSc, and Danielle Martin MD, MPubPol.

This is a summary of that article.

With the exception of Canada, all countries with universal health insurance systems provide universal coverage of prescription drugs. Progress toward universal public drug coverage in Canada has been slow, in part because of concerns about the potential costs. The authors sought to estimate the cost of implementing universal public coverage of prescription drugs in Canada.

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The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom recently appointed one of her ministers, Tracey Crouch, to lead an inter-governmental group tasked with countering a growing epidemic of social isolation and loneliness.

The appointment was made in response to a report published by the Commission on Loneliness, set up to honor the late Jo Cox, a Labour MP who had campaigned about loneliness and was murdered by a right wing extremist in 2016.

In her announcement Prime Minister May said: “For far too many people, loneliness is the sad reality of modern life.” and “I want to confront this challenge for our society and for all of us to take action to address the loneliness endured by the elderly, by carers, by those who have lost loved ones – people who have no one to talk to or share their thoughts and experiences with.”

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