Residents and workers in Canada’s long-term-care system have been harmed by the COVID-19 pandemic — and those who are racialized and from immigrant communities likely have been affected most, a new report says. “Without data we couldn’t look at the impact of COVID-19 in long-term care,” said Seong-gee Um, a researcher at the Wellesley Institute, a Toronto-based research and policy non-profit organization. COVID’s massive impact on Canada’s long-term-care system further exposed cracks that were already present. Canada has a poor reputation for long-term care and historically is behind in collecting sociodemographic data, and this is a chance to improve that and the long-term-care system, he said. “When we’re talking about developing new national long-term-care standards … you can’t make improvements unless you’re actually measuring.”

Source: thestar July 22, 2021 09:01 UTC