Kingston Community Foundation annual report focuses on aging population challenges and opportunities

The kingston-area’s population is getting older.

The latest ‘Vital Signs’ study released by the Community Foundation for Kingston and Area, found that in next decade the number of Kingston-area residents over 65 will increase by 15,000.

In that same period, the 15 to 64 age group will decline by 6,000.

A trend Michael Bell, the past president of the Community Foundation for Kingston Area, says poses both economic challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurs.

“Driving service, shopping service, we’ll take you to your appointments,” Bell said.

A 2013 Ipsos-Reid survey found 83 per cent of Canadians want to grow old in their own home, putting a bigger emphasis on community-based health care.

That shift in health-care spending can also mean savings.

It costs $1,000 dollars a day to care for someone in the hospital versus $55 a day for supportive housing.

Peterborough Dr. Jenny Ingram says they’ve developed specialized teams to address the issue of caring for more seniors at home.

“Inter-professionals to deal with what I’m going to call frail seniors out in the community to try to keep them at home and avoid going to the emergency room, avoid going to long-term care,” said Ingram.

Through a number of pilot projects across the province, it’s beginning to look like paramedics could play a vital role in providing some of the health care that seniors need to help keep them in their homes longer.

The head of Frontenac County Paramedic services Paul Charbonneau, says they’ve been running a para-medicine pilot project on Wolfe Island for the last four years, along with community referral services, and evaluating the risk of independence loss at various locations in the county.

“Certainly we have seen a reduction in the number of 911 calls from the people who have come to some of the clinics in the north.”
The annual report also highlights the importance of staying physically, mentally, and socially active to keep seniors healthy and about to remain in their homes,” Charbonneau said.