Investigation into access to residential resources for elderly people

  • October 28, 2021
  • The elderly, CHSLD, CISSS, Hospital, Private seniors’ residences, Health
Dame âgée assise sur une chaise et parlant au téléphone
Adobe Stock

On October 28, 2021, the Québec Ombudsman released a special report on access to residential resources for elderly people. Here are the main features.

A few numbers

  • Every year, more than 21,000 applications are accepted in Québec.
  • One out of three applications is filed while the would-be resident is hospitalized.
  • More than 10,000 people are waiting for a permanent resource.
  • Most people get a place within a public residential resource within a few months. Others wait two, three or four years.

The main findings

As the Québec Ombudsman sees it, the access mechanism must be improved for several reasons:

  • Elderly people’s rights are not always upheld, namely, the right to choose a place, to be properly informed, and to refuse a place that has been offered them.
  • Most moves must take place in fewer than 48 hours. This causes the elderly people needless distress.
  • Temporary arrangements are too frequent. By placing people away from their environment and network, they are subjected to a form of homelessness at the end of life.
  • There are substantial differences between regions in terms of wait times and application processing delays.
  • The application-ranking system is skewed towards clinical needs at the cost of social and emotional needs. This can mean that spouses are separated or access for informal caregivers is complicated.
  • There are overly long wait times for a place outside the applicant’s residence territory. This may prevent elderly people from living close to their family.
  • The fact is that hospitalization has become a fast-track to residential resources. For similar health conditions, the wait time is longer for people still living at home than people who are hospitalized.
  • Access data are often unequal, lacking or hard to obtain. As a result, they do not reflect real needs.

The Québec Ombudsman’s recommendations

The report contains 14 recommendations to the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux aimed at making the access mechanism fairer and more compassionate, and at strengthening the respect of rights. The recommendations are grouped under four orientations:

  1. Show consideration for would-be residents;
  2. Standardize practices Québec-wide;
  3. Review application prioritization;
  4. Produce an exhaustive portrait of access to public residential resources.

For more information

See the special report titled Pour un accès à l’hébergement public qui respecte les droits et les besoins des personnes âgées et de leurs proches (PDF, 1.39 Mo).

An English summary (PDF, 130 KiB) is also available.