Welfare Reform on the Web (May 2000): Care of the Elderly - Overseas

LONG TERM CARE RESTRUCTURING IN RURAL ONTARIO: RETRIEVING COMMUNIY SERVICE USER AND PROVIDER NARRATIVES

D. Cloutier-Fisher and A. E. Joseph

Social Science and Medicine, vol. 50, 2000, p. 1037-1045

Paper examines the extensive restructuring of community care that took place in Ontario in 1996. Analysis of interviews conducted with 14 community service users and 17 providers suggests that the managed competition system implemented through a network of Community Care Access Centres (CCACs) has led to considerable variations in local capacity to respond to demand for assistance. It seems likely that the restructuring of publicly-funded community services, combined with a substantial reinvestment in long-term care facilities, will make some elderly people more vulnerable to institutionalisation.