Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

In Canada, diseases leading to chronic disabilities are increasing. With the aging of the baby boomer cohort, more older adults will have to live with chronic disabilities and require assistance in performing activities of daily living. Fortunately, many technologies are being developed to help individuals self-manage their chronic disabilities (CD) and become more autonomous. These technologies can enable older adults to remain autonomous in their community-dwellings and actively participate in society. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are one of the types of technologies that help these older adults self-manage their daily activities and promote social inclusion. Healthcare in Canada is managed at the provincial level and therefore it is important to look at the political strategies in place in the different ministries of health. Specifically, this project will focus on the Ontario healthcare system. Currently, Ontario offers a Chronic Disease Prevention and Management (CDPM) framework to inform prevention and management strategies. This framework is informational but does not offer legislative directions for individuals who are self-managing or wish to self-manage their CD with ICTs. This project will advance health policy actions in Ontario for older adults with CD by proposing a conceptual framework that could later be adapted to the healthcare models of the other Canadian provinces and implemented based on their identified needs.