University of Toronto Press Release

Government policies harm seniors' quality of life: study
indicates that issues of aging population are not being
adequately addressed

Report available at http://www.utoronto.ca/seniors

by Megan Easton

September 19, 2000 -- Toronto seniors believe their quality of
life is negatively affected by policies at all levels of
government and they have little input in the policy process,
says a University of Toronto study that consulted hundreds of
seniors and seniors service providers across the city.

"Seniors are telling us the municipal, provincial and federal
governments are not considering seniors' needs and are not
listening to them to find out what they need," said lead
author Professor Dennis Raphael of the Faculty of Medicine's
department of public health sciences. "Among other
shortcomings, the federal government has no comprehensive
strategy in place for dealing with seniors' issues. This is
significant considering that the population of people over 65
in Canada is expected to reach 5 million by 2011."

The study, titled A City For All Ages: Fact or Fiction?
Effects of Government Policy Decisions on Toronto Seniors'
Quality of Life, is part of a national project involving eight
Canadian cities led by U of T's Centre for Health Promotion.
The Toronto study, which included seniors in all aspects of
its design and implementation, examines the impact of
government policies on seniors' quality of life in nine areas:
housing, acute health care, long-term care, income support,
transportation and mobility, health promotion, hearing
seniors' voices, access to information and cultural issues.

Seniors' main policy concerns include: poor accessibility to
public transportation, lack of affordable housing,
insufficient income support, scarcity of long-term care
facilities and threats to universal health care and home
support services. "Seniors voices about these issues are not
being adequately heard at any level of government," Raphael
says. "For example, at the local level a Seniors Assembly is
being established, but it remains to be seen whether or not
this assembly will have the impact of the former Toronto
Mayor's Committee on Aging which was a standing committee that
had direct access to Toronto Council."

Raphael says the report's findings indicate that there is a
gap between government rhetoric and recent government actions
on seniors' issues. "The report concludes that recent
government policy decisions are not being guided by
traditional Canadian principles of social justice, caring, and
respect."

A seniors' co-ordinating committee led the Toronto study in
consultation with a U of T project leader and a seniors'
advisory committee representing more than 40 seniors'
organizations. The co-ordinating committee held sixteen focus
groups with seniors, including representatives from Toronto's
diverse cultural communities, and seniors' service providers.
Funding for the study came from Health Canada's Population
Health Fund.

Megan Easton is a news services officer with the Department of
Public Affairs.

CONTACT:  For the full report, please contact Dr. Ivan Brown,
U of T Centre for Health Promotion, ph: (416) 978-1101 or
consult the web site at www.utoronto.ca/seniors

U of T Public Affairs, ph: (416) 978-5949; email:
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