Interventions en promotion de la santé auprès des personnes aînées LGBTQ : réalités québécoises.

Research on LGBTQ older adults reveals persistent accessibility problems with health and social services specific to this segment of the population as well as the need to develop inclusive approaches to remove accessibility barriers. In Quebec, governmental measures (such as public policy, action plans and reports) have prioritized actions to improve the accessibility of resources, raise staff awareness and encourage the establishment of safe and welcoming environments for LGBTQ older adults. This article focuses on two health promotion interventions for LGBTQ older adults: a training program developed by a community group and an online training tool targeting employees within the healthcare and social services network. In the light of these experiences, this article proposes recommendations.

Who Cares? Preferences for Formal and Informal Care Among Older Adults in Québec.

Policy makers, practitioners, and scholars are increasingly examining the types of care services (formal vs. informal) offered to older adults. This study evaluates predictors of these adults' preferences for care types in Québec, Canada, based on a province-wide survey inserted in a magazine of the largest seniors' club in Canada (FADOQ). More than twice as many respondents indicated a preference for formal rather than informal care. Multinomial logistic regressions demonstrate that older adults' past and current experiences and perceptions of formal and informal services continue to play an important role in their preference formation regarding care services. The study determined that preferring informal care is significantly more prevalent when one is accustomed to this type of care, and that men are significantly more likely to prefer informal care than women, and that lower-income individuals are less likely to favor formal care.

How Will COVID-19 Alter the Politics of Long-Term Care? A Comparative Policy Analysis of Popular Reform Options.

This policy analysis reviews three popular proposals with significant political endorsement to enhance long-term care (LTC), here defined broadly to include residential care facilities, home care, and community care, in the wake of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis: national standards, provincial autonomy, and de-privatization. The proposals are summarized succinctly followed by a neo-institutionalist analysis of the obstacles to enact them based upon a series of interviews conducted prior to COVID-19 with senior civil servants in Canadian provinces for a newly published book (Marier, 2021) and political considerations. While the federal government has pursued the avenue of instituting national standards, the provinces have clearly expressed a desire to secure higher federal health transfers and pursue LTC reforms on their own. Considering the diversity of LTC arrangements across the provinces, which impact the politics of LTC within each jurisdiction, and the presence of many Conservative governments in provincial capitals, Ottawa faces an uphill battle to transform profoundly the LTC landscape.

Aging in Place With a Spouse in Need: Neighborhood Cohesion and Older Adult Spouses' Physical and Mental Health.

This study examines the association of perceived neighborhood cohesion (NC) with older adults' health and the buffering effects of NC against the negative effects of spousal caregiving on health. Data of 3329 community-living older adults living with a spouse in need of care from the Health and Retirement Study were collected at two time-points. Multiple regression analyses were computed for each of the four health outcomes. For men, NC predicted fewer depressive symptoms and better cognition. NC buffered the negative effect of providing activities of daily living (ADL) help to the wife on cognition. For women, NC predicted fewer depressive symptoms and better cognition. NC buffered the negative effect of providing ADL help to the husband on ADL difficulties. The results accentuate the importance of residency location for older adults' physical and mental health. The health benefits of NC may have more implications for older adults providing spousal care.

COVID-19 and Long-Term Care Policy for Older People in Canada.

Older people are especially vulnerable to COVID-19, including and especially people living in long-term care facilities. In this Perspective, we discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on long-term care policy in Canada. More specifically, we use the example of recent developments in Quebec, where a tragedy in a specific facility is acting as a dramatic "focusing event". It draws attention to the problems facing long-term care facilities, considering existing policy legacies and the opening of a "policy window" that may facilitate comprehensive reforms in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ageism and COVID-19: what does our society's response say about us?

The goal of this commentary is to highlight the ageism that has emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 20 international researchers in the field of ageing have contributed to this document. This commentary discusses how older people are misrepresented and undervalued in the current public discourse surrounding the pandemic. It points to issues in documenting the deaths of older adults, the lack of preparation for such a crisis in long-term care homes, how some 'protective' policies can be considered patronising and how the initial perception of the public was that the virus was really an older adult problem. This commentary also calls attention to important intergenerational solidarity that has occurred during this crisis to ensure support and social-inclusion of older adults, even at a distance. Our hope is that with this commentary we can contribute to the discourse on older adults during this pandemic and diminish the ageist attitudes that have circulated.

Precarity and Aging: A Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The concept of precarity holds the potential to understand insecurities and risks experienced by older people in the contemporary social, economic, political and cultural context. This study maps existing conceptualizations of precarity in relation to aging and later life, identifies key themes, and considers the use of precarity in two subfields. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: This article presents the findings of a two-phase scoping study of the international literature on precarity in later life. Phase I involved a review of definitions and understandings of precarity and aging. Phase II explored two emerging subthemes of disability and im/migration as related to aging and late life. RESULTS: A total of 121 published studies were reviewed across Phase I and Phase II. Findings reveal that the definition of precarity is connected with insecurity, vulnerability, and labor and that particular social locations, trajectories, or conditions may heighten the risk of precarity in late life. IMPLICATIONS AND DISCUSSION: The article concludes by outlining the need for conceptual clarity, research on the unique multidimensional features of aging and precarity, the delineation of allied concepts and emerging applications, and the importance of linking research results with processes of theory building and the development of policy directives for change.

Precarity in late life: Understanding new forms of risk and insecurity.

Population aging and longevity in the context of declining social commitments, raises concerns about disadvantage and widening inequality in late life. This paper explores the concept of precarity as a means to understand new and sustained forms of risk and insecurity that affect late life. The article begins with a review of the definition and uses of precarity in a range of scholarly fields including social gerontology. It then draws on illustrations from three locations of experience including older women, aging with a disability, and the foreign-born, to outline how precarity renders visible the disadvantages carried into late life, and new insecurities that emerge at the moment of needing care in the context of austerity. The argument being put forward is that precarity can be used to illustrate how risks and insecurities, experienced over time, in longevity, and the context of austerity, can deepen disadvantage. This lens thus holds the potential to challenge individual interpretations of risk, and situate experiences of disadvantage in the economic and political context. We conclude that contemporary conditions of austerity and longevity intersect to produce and sustain risk and disadvantage into late life.