English Housing Survey: Does it Mean Anything for Seniors in Ontario?

A report titled, Home solutions to our care crisis, was published in the United Kingdom by the Papworth Trust in November, 2012. The report is the distillation of 640 responses from their English Housing Survey conducted to see how unsuitable housing can affect people's lives. A secondary aim of the survey was to help increase awareness of home adaptations as a solution to the care crisis for the disabled being experienced in the UK.

Home adaptations would include such things as: bathroom conversions, grab rails, kitchen alterations, ramps and level access, widening doorways.

You can read the full report here: Home solutions to our care crisis
http://www.papworthtrust.org.uk/sites/default/files/homesolutionstoourcarecrisis_121113100850.pdf

Noteworthy statistics

One in 4 respondents reported that they could not get around their home safely.
Two in 5 people said that a lack of facilities for the disabled in their home meant they needed help to do everyday things like cooking.
Two thirds of people who had not received a government Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) had never heard of it.

Here in Ontario, or Canada generally, do we have any reason to think that we would not get responses similar to those in the UK?

Financial benefits of home adaptations

Analysis by the London School of Economics suggests that the annual spend on governmental Disabled Facilities Grants of around £270 million is worth up to £567 million in health and social care savings and quality of life gains. Put differently, every £1 spent on Disabled Facilities Grants is worth over £2 in care savings and quality of life gains.

A study by Bristol University, on behalf of the Office of Disability Issues, found that home adaptations can help prevent or defer entry into residential care. Just 1 year’s delay means a saving up to £26,000 per person, less the cost of the adaptation (which averages £6,000). (Can somebody tell me the cost per person per year for long-term care in Ontario?)

Falls by older people in the UK cost over £1 billion a year. A fractured hip can cost the state an estimated £28,665. Compare this with the cost of installing grab rails, one effective way of reducing risk of falls.

In Wales, the Government has estimated that a programme to help older people remain living independently in their own homes has saved the NHS and social care budgets over £101 million since it was set up 10 years previously.

Home Adaptations: A Cost or an Investment with a Return?

There is a common mindset that presumes any initiative requiring money is a money-grabbing cost to the tax payer that should be fought tooth and nail. It should be evident from the above that judicious implementation of home adaptations is actually an investment that should produce a return in both financial savings and quality of life.

(This report titled, Home solutions to our care crisis, was published in the United Kingdom by the Papworth Trust in November, 2012. Does anyone know of any similar studies conducted anywhere in Canada, especially Ontario?)