Toronto, Ontario - April 28, 2022 - The provincial government’s plan to significantly increase funding for home care will help to ensure Ontario’s most vulnerable are able to age and live well in their homes and communities. This much needed funding will play a crucial role in helping the sector continue to deliver services and reduce the growing pressure on hospital capacity.
We commend the government’s continued investment into the Ontario Community Support Program. Over the past two years, this successful program has completed more than 1.6 million meal and medicine deliveries to over 70,000 low-income seniors and people with disabilities in communities across the province.
Community support service agencies continue to play an essential role in the system by supporting vulnerable Ontarians and maintaining their independence at home. A strong community care sector is the bedrock to a sustainable health system. The base increase and service expansion of community support services announced in today’s budget represents a vital and much-needed injection of funding to maintain the viability of these services in the short-term. However, we need a plan for the long-term sustainability of these critical services which support one million Ontarians to age at home and in their community.
“Budget 2022 will help the more than one million and growing Ontarians who rely on home and community care to remain living well at home.” said Geoffrey Quirt, Board Chair of OCSA, “Our members have stepped up throughout the pandemic to serve their communities with compassion and commitment and these investments will help them continue to do so.”
About OCSA
Ontario Community Support Association (OCSA) represents close to 230 not-for-profit organizations that provide home care and community support services that help seniors and people with disabilities live independently in their own homes and communities for as long as possible. These compassionate and cost-effective services improve quality of life and prevent unnecessary hospitalizations, emergency room visits and premature institutionalization. They are the key to a sustainable health care system for Ontario.
For more information, visit www.ocsa.on.ca and https://twitter.com/OCSAtweets.
Interviews are available with OCSA Board Chair Geoff Quirt.
For more information please contact:
Karla Sealy
Communications Manager
Ontario Community Support Association
416-256-3010 ext. 242
180 Dundas St. W., Suite 1400-B,Toronto, ON M5G 1Z8
OCSA is being hosted on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. We also acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13, signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit and the Williams Treaties signed with multiple Mississaugas and Chippewa bands.