Enabling Aging in Place

Enabling Aging in Place supports organizations to help older adults age at home with formal support.

Enabling Aging in Place is supporting 26 health and social service organizations across the country to implement promising practices that help older adults age at home with formal support.

“Used to working within our small island communities, it is a rare treat to connect with teams from across the country and to access the expertise of our coach and the many resources from the HEC team. This is the kind of meaningful support we need to create real change with, and for, older adults in our communities.”

EAIP program participant

What is Enabling Aging in Place?

Launched by Healthcare Excellence Canada in 2024, Enabling Aging in Place brings together 26 health and social service organizations from across the country.

In phase one (January 2024 to April 2024), teams received support to create implementation and evaluation plans. This helped them develop sustainable aging-in-place programs that built on the strengths of individual communities and responded to the local needs of older adults and their care partners.

Qualifying teams from phase one who demonstrated readiness to implement their programs and successfully completed their implementation and evaluation plans will be supported to implement, spread, or expand a promising practice based on this progress in phase two of the collaborative (June 2024 to September 2025).

How healthcare organizations are helping older adults age at home

Evidence shows that one in 10 people who enter long-term care potentially could have been cared for at home with formal support. However, lack of information and navigation support, limited mobility and transportation, geographic disparities and other barriers make it difficult for many older adults to be supported to age in place. Encouragingly, many aging in place programs across Canada are successfully helping older adults stay at home safely, with better health and quality of life.

86% of Enabling Aging in Place phase one teams engaged with community members in their program planning efforts differently because of knowledge gained in the collaborative.

Through Enabling Aging in Place, teams:

Address challenges with system navigation
Reduce financial barriers
Improve responsiveness (e.g., reliability of staff, consistency of staff, flexibility of services, respite services for care partners)
Deliver health and social services using evidence-based innovations developed to provide appropriate care for older adults
Provide access to specialized services such as social and emotional support, on-call support, language and cultural services, and help with non-medical needs
Created connected communities where older adults and their care partners are engaged in health and social activities