108 Business View - June 2015
viduals to receive care at home and/or live as inde-
pendently as possible in the community.”
Why Home Care?
Most, if not all, people wish to remain independent at
home in their community during their older years. Suc-
cessful aging requires a holistic approach – avoiding
disease and disability; maintaining cognitive ability;
and engaging with life. One of the most significant and
least desirable outcomes for a community dwelling se-
nior is to be prematurely institutionalized because of
the lack of home and community care- based health
and social support options.
Home care is critical to supporting individual health
needs, managing chronic illness and system sustain-
ability. A robust system incorporating both publicly and
privately funded home care services can give Ontar-
ians flexibility and independence as they age and can
help them to maintain their valuable contribution to
communities and families. For the overwhelming ma-
jority who prefer to remain in their community, home
care service is more desirable, as well as more cost
and health effective.
History of Government
Funded Home Care
Home care is a publicly funded, not a publicly insured,
service. In Ontario, publicly funded home care falls un-
der the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health and Long-
Term Care (MOHLTC), which has steadily increased its
investment in order to meet the increasing demand.
Notwithstanding, the mandate of the publicly funded
system is to support families to provide care at home.
Families provide the majority of care at home, and to
manage, many choose to use private funds to retain
home care service provider organizations.
Government funded home care was formally estab-
lished in Ontario in 1970 and has grown and evolved
as a sector over the past 45 years. As has been the
case ever since the inception of the publicly funded
HEALTHCARE
