Social Development Canada’s mission is “to strengthen Canada’s social foundations by supporting the well-being of individuals, families and communities and their participation through citizen focused policies, programs and services” (Social Development Canada 2005a). Well-being is a...

Since the prevalence of many chronic health conditions increases with age we might anticipate that as the population ages the proportion with one or more such conditions would rise, as would the cost of treatment. We ask three questions: How much would the overall prevalence of chronic...

Four questions are addressed: (1) What is theory and how is it important in the development of knowledge about aging? (2) What is the state of theory in gerontology today? (3) Why has explicit theory development become devalued in gerontology during the past few decades? (4) How and why should...

About 6% of seniors in Canada have family incomes below the Low-Income Measure. (The Low-Income Measure is 50% of the median family income, adjusted for family size, and is a commonly used, if arbitrary, operational definition of relative poverty.) This is a low rate by international standards,...

The reformulation of the regulation of long-term care seen in the recent White Paper and Royal Commission in the UK has led to topical debates on long-term care for older people. Given that there are over 500,000 people in residential nursing and dual registered homes across the country, there...

There are numerous ways to better integrate the elderly into communities, many of which are contingent upon whether they will remain in their pre- retirement homes or make a move. Using a life course perspective, this paper establishes that residential history, social and family relations,...

This paper examines the conditions under which individuals begin or do not begin making financial plans for their later years. The data are drawn from a sample of mid- and later-life individuals (n=51) who participated in qualitative, life-history interviews. Participants identified three types...

Post-war policies and subsequent debates had two policy targets: reducing old-age poverty and enhancing income security for the “average worker” after retirement. While we know a lot about the first issue, the second has received less attention as a result of data limitations. We take...

The residential mobility choices of the elderly (aging-in-place, local moves, or migration) have very different policy implications forming a dynamic system of inter-related issues that present planners with a number of dilemmas which are particularly sensitive to local context. These include...

Local planning for an aging population in Ontario is multi-sectorial, involving a variety of policy initiatives and a complex funding system. It is important to understand what planning bodies have jurisdiction over issues associated with aging in the community, the extent to which such issues...