National Forum — Closing the Care Gap

The National Forum on Closing the Care Gap was an initiative developed by the Canadian Association on Gerontology to provide a forum for health care consumers, researchers, care providers, government representatives, medical representatives and the private health sector to discuss the differences in access to care and treatments faced by Canadian seniors. The event, held in Montreal from March 26 to 28, 1999, was funded through the financial assistance of: Merck Frosst; Health Canada, Health Promotion and Programs Branch; Lilly; Smith Kline Beecham Pharma; Pfizer; Parke-Davis; and Wyeth-Ayerst Canada Inc.

---

The overall goal of the Forum was to begin the discussion toward developing effective and appropriate health care policies and health practices for all Canadians. The Agenda for the Forum may be found in Appendix A.

The objectives of the Forum were to:

1. review the evidence for clinical efficacy and cost-effectiveness of health care interventions, particularly among older persons;
2. examine and compare patterns in both health care utilization and treatment outcomes across men, women, and different age groups;
3. explore the reasons for identified gaps in health care provided to older Canadians and to women in Canada, as compared to that provided to younger Canadians and to men;
4. explore potential approaches to either narrow or close the identified gaps; and
5. explore ways to guide policy-makers toward developing more evidence-based policies and practices, which would lead to more cost-efficient and high quality health care for all Canadians.

Forum participants represented a wide range of organizations and individuals concerned with the health care of older persons. These included:

• consumers and informal caregivers;
• physicians;
• registered nurses;
• allied health professionals;
• researchers;
• educators;
• health promotion/disease prevention professionals;
• policy experts, both federal and provincial;
• national health and seniors organizations representatives; and
• provincial health organizations representatives.

This report is divided into five sections. Section I includes the opening remarks made on the evening of March 26, 1999, by Co-Chairpersons Dr. Carl Taillon; Dr. Norah Keating, President of the Canadian Association on Gerontology; and Ms. Nancy Garrard, a representative of Health Canada.

Sections II to IV include highlights of both the keynote and sessional presentations made on March 27th. The keynote presentations focused on:

1. examining the care gaps from a variety of perspectives ranging from clinical to policy-making;
2. providing an overview of current Canadian initiatives to overcome these care inequalities;
3. exploring the four health topics; and
4. exploring new strategies.

The last section, Section V, summarizes the recommendations and future course which was identified by the stakeholder discussion group on the afternoon of March 28th.

Special thanks to Jean F. Kozak, Ph.D. who has prepared this report.