The shift to ambulatory care, initiated in Canada’s health care system in the 1990’s, consists in reducing the length of hospitals stays, delaying institutionalization and promoting home care. However, the supply for health and social support services is flawed in that seniors living in the community do not receive all the home care assistance they report to need. Based on data from the 2002 General Social Survey, this research presents a global portrait of unmet needs for home care services in Canada. It shows that 26.8% of seniors need assistance, accounting for approximately 1,024,000 individuals. Among these, just over 180,000 (17.7%) had at least one unmet need. In nearly half the cases, elderly with unmet needs receive insufficient support for 2 activities or more. Furthermore, house cleaning, house maintenance and outdoor work are the three activities with the highest prevalence of unmet needs. Finally, the younger seniors, those who require assistance for 3 or 4 activities, and those living in Quebec and British Columbia are most likely to have unmet needs.
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