Nursing home association seeks new ways to care for aging population

The New Brunswick Association of Nursing Homes is holding meetingsaround the province looking for ideas on how communities can help their aging populations.

Michael Keating, the executive director of the association, said the current economic realities mean the province needs to rethink its approach to senior care.

"We can't sustain ourselves over the long term with respect to how we're presently operating our long-term care sector," said Keating.

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While the association is looking for ideas from New Brunswickers, its members also have a few ideas. Association members recently traveled to Europe to see how nations there dealt with their aging populations.

One idea that caught Keating's eye was a service called "Good Morning Ireland."

"[When] people are isolated, and live at home, and all by themselves, they get a call everyday to talk about how they're doing, what's going on in their lives and to just generally stop them from being detached from society," said Keating.

There are ideas closer to home that Keating finds interesting as well, including one initiative that a nursing home in Deep River, Ont., is doing.

"They take their employees and their staff and they go into the homes of others to provide care as needed, and act as relief for people who are doing the care-giving and keeps them at home longer," said Keating.

Something Keating would like people to consider is the resources that retired people can provide. They may not wish to work full time, but may be willing to give a few hours of their time to the community.

"I'm a lawyer, and I will be retiring, but I don't necessarily want to stop working. So nothing stops me from giving back to my community [for] say three or four hours every two weeks. I can go into a seniors centre and write wills or powers of attorney," said Keating.

Keating said issues surrounding senior care have reached crisis levels.

"The people didn't seem to think this was going to happen, despite the fact it was predictable from the day us baby boomers were born," said Keating.