The future of homecare in Canada

In deliberative breakout sessions and in plenary discussions, participants discussed the role home and community care can play in enhancing patient care and renewing the health system: In future, home and community care will constitute a valued and essential element in the continuum of health and social services provided to Canadians. [...] The aim of the roundtable was to: • Bring together a group of participants that is representative of the many different elements within the home and health care sectors to have a deliberative discussion, and to set concrete and collective next steps for the home and community care sector; • Through a combination of panels and keynote speakers, provide a brief summary of the current state of homeca [...] For Canadian citizens… Ten years down the road, home and community care will represent a client centered, integrated continuum of health and social services that will… • Be responsive to the needs of all Canadians as part of the broader health system; • Help people to remain independent and functional in the place they want to be; • Increasingly be customized and tailored to meet the needs of indi [...] The plan should begin by clarifying the vision for home and community care services by emphasizing both the essential role of homecare within the broader public health system and the critical importance of the social component of homecare services. [...] On the government relations front, a “Create common definitions…” First Ministers first element of the approach should should work with the federal government to create increase political understanding of the common definitions for homecare services, issue by emphasizing the benefits of practices and standards to improve the home and community care services to comparability of systems, and to en