Giving Care: An approach to a better caregiving landscape in Canada

Jasmine Lee, Adrienne Lipsey, and Alannah Dharamshi of Springboard Policy wrote a whitepaper with the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence.

Caregivers are the unseen and unacknowledged foundation upon which our health-care, social services and disability supports systems are built. Their labour to support care recipients from every walk of life make our economy tick and our society run. If all caregivers took a week off, every Canadian would experience the collapse of our care systems before noon on the first day. Unpaid caregivers and paid care providers make up the largest part of Canada’s health-care and social supports systems. Research shows that they provide approximately three hours of care for every hour provided through the rest of our systems. They help seniors living in the community or in long-term care settings; children and adults with physical, intellectual, or developmental disabilities; people with medical conditions; people experiencing mental illness; and people with changing support needs related to aging. The sustainability of Canada’s health-care and social systems relies on caregivers and care providers, but they are at a breaking point.