From institutions to Homes
Webinar Recording Now Available.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our April 22nd webinar, “The Research Results are coming in! Providence Living at the Views”. If you weren’t able to attend live—or would like to revisit the discussion—you can watch the full recording below.
Presenter: Dr. Amy Salmon
Listen to the recording here:
CARP Advocacy Working Group on LTC advocates for changing “institutions to homes”. While this is our overall mission, “homes” to us means residents experience joy, feel safe, valued, respected and where quality of life is just as important as quality of care for those living and working within LTC homes. Collaboration, relationship building, and teamwork are essential for strengthening care delivery. And so, we ask you to share the following announcement which will provide support and help to team members and leaders in LTC Homes as they deliver person centred and emotion-based care.
LTC Homes are Invited to Join the Ontario CLRI for the expanded Person-Centred Care in LTC Community of Practice
The Champlain Region Person-Centred Care is expanding to a provincial audience this June! This Community of Practice is open to all long-term care home team members and leaders in Ontario. Connect with peers across the province to support each other on your person-centred and emotion-based care journeys, whether you are looking to start your journey or strengthen your current PCC initiatives. The first virtual session is on June 10th, 2026 from 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. Hosted by the Ontario CLRI at Bruyère Health.
Learn more and register here
Did you know that Ontario is modernizing its long-term care (LTC) data capabilities?
The long-term care sector in Canada continues to face persistent challenges, particularly in staffing. A key barrier has been the lack of timely, standardized data to support workforce planning, quality improvement, and policy evaluation. To address these gaps, the OnSPARK Data Platform was established in 2023 as a sector-governed, province-wide initiative.
In Ontario, this innovative portal and data platform is transforming how long-term care homes operate, plan, and deliver care. OnSPARK is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and led by McMaster University and St. Joseph’s Health System and supported by a collaborative group of sector partners, including Santé Bruyère Health, Research Institute for Aging (RIA), Ontario Centre for Learning, Research, and Innovation @ Santé Bruyère Health, and CanHealth LTC Innovation and Scaling Network.
With more than 200 Ontario long-term care homes already participating, OnSPARK is building a shared evidence base that supports more responsive care, more informed planning, and a stronger collective voice across the sector. As participation grows, so does the value of the insights—for every home involved.
Michelle Stillman, Director, Partnership and Governance, explains:
“OnSPARK is about turning data into meaningful action. By bringing together information from across the sector, we’re helping homes better understand their workforce challenges, improve quality of care, and make decisions grounded in real evidence. It’s a powerful step toward a more connected, informed, and resilient long-term care system.”
To learn more: Click here
A green house dining room (copied with permission)
As the experiences of Ontario’s long term care homes where an innovative model of care has been implemented can attest, designing for living is a significant factor to consider when changing long-term care homes from ‘institutions to homes’.
Environment has shown time and time again with qualitative studies that it is so important to the quality of life of seniors living in long-term care homes. Among the environmental aspects to be considered are ‘real’ kitchens, small households, and access to the outdoors.
Many long-term care homes in Ontario are leading the way – e.g. Glebe Centre, Temiskaming Lodge, Malton Village, and the list goes on.
Please advocate for the implementation of innovative models of care, of which ‘designing for the living’, plays an important role.
Webinar Recording Now Available.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our March 18th webinar, “Inside Long-Term Care: A Frontline Perspective”. If you weren’t able to attend live—or would like to revisit the discussion—you can watch the full recording below.
Presenters: Melissa Rochon, Maribeth Batuigas, Meghan Barnett
Listen to the recording here:
The Village Langley, B.C.
‘Agrace’s Dementia Village will be the first of its kind in the United States. It is being modelled after the internationally recognized Hogeweyk Dementia Village in the Netherlands’. It is being built in Madison, Wisconsin.
The first Village of this model in Canada was established in Langley, B.C. a few years ago. Subsequently, also in B.C., Providence Living established its first Village and is now in the process of implementing the Village model for all its long-term care home beds. Where there’s a will, there’s a way- in both the for profit and not-for-profit long-term care home sectors.
Please encourage your MPP to advocate for a provincial strategic plan in Ontario to bring innovative models of care to its long-term care homes. This change can’t come soon enough.
Providence Living is fulfilling its plan to embrace the implementation of the innovative long-term care village model into its long-term care facilities.
Providence Living at the Views in Comox, B.C. opened its doors in 2024 to the first of its non-profit long-term care homes to benefit from the innovative village model.
Now their second village home is in the making: Providence Living at The Rivers set to open in early 2028. “This project represents a complete reimagining of what long-term care can and should be,” said Mark Blandford, president and CEO, Providence Living. “We’re creating a community where northern B.C. seniors can live with dignity, joy and purpose through our innovative long-term care village and Home for Us care model.”
Two more homes are planned for the future, one in Quesnel expected to start later this year, and the other in Smithers, expected to start in 2028.
Residents and day-program participants at Langley Village (Dillon Hodgin/CBC)
It is worth taking note of a CBC News article by reporters Shaurya Kshatri and Yasmine Ghania, December 26th, 2025: “Inside a B.C. ‘dementia village’ that researchers hope could reshape long-term care”.
Langley Village opened in 2019 and about 75 residents live full time at The Village Langley in its six cottage-style homes.
“The Village is now part of a new research project led by Simon Fraser University (SFU) in B.C. and McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., which aims to understand what this kind of setting actually does for people with dementia and find ways to replicate some of its elements across the country.”
“The research team’s goal is to provide evidence that can inform future policy to promote and implement innovative approaches in long-term care that will create a normalized and naturally rich, supportive care community,” says SFU Professor Chaudhury.
We look forward to learning from the findings of their research.
Click here to read the full article –
Building plans for Toronto’s Rekai Centre’s Cherry Street location
A downtown Toronto long-term care home is rebuilding with a new design that considers lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, going beyond the province’s standards but some say those standards are out of date.
“Many of the planned updates at the 13-storey facility on Cherry Street were
brainstormed during the pandemic as shortfalls were brought to light,” said CEO, Sue Graham-Nutter. “The changes made by the Rekai Centre are a good start,” according to Dr. Samir Sinha, a geriatrician, clinician scientist and the Director of Health Policy Research at the National Institute on Aging (NIA).
“If you think about palliative care hospices, if you think about group homes for younger people don’t have them living in large institutional settings,” Sinha said. “So why is it that in North America we only do this with frail, older people?” (Dr. Sinha, There’s No Place Like Home Report/National Institute on Ageing)
Sinha said long-term care should be moving towards a “small care homes” model of 10 to 12 people, each with their own private bedroom and bathroom. Larger buildings can be broken up into multiple 12-person households and still follow the model, he said.
To learn more about the building plans for the new Rekai Centre, click here.
Webinar Recording Now Available.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our January 21st webinar, “Building a small home at Meadowview Villa”. If you weren’t able to attend live—or would like to revisit the discussion—you can watch the full recording below.
Presenter: Carolyn Bilson, Architect, MMMC Architects
Listen to the recording here:
On December 10th, 2025, Alison Jones, Canadian Press, noted in her article that Ontario was expanding new rules for cultural long-term care placements.
“The government found that their 2022 law known as Bill 7, which was criticized for allowing people to be placed in a long-term care home not of their choosing, also led to declining and mismatched admissions to the province’s cultural homes.
Long-Term Care Minister Natalia Kusendova-Bashta implemented a pilot project in April in 29 homes that serve a particular religious, ethnic or linguistic community and she says that has been successful.”
