Photo Credit: ehospice.com

While everybody has been debating about the pros and cons of the proposed Bill C-14 on the right to die in Canada, another important topic is being sidelined – the access to and the quality of palliative care.

Specialists believe that there is too much fear surrounding discussions about end-of-life care. They said it is not about what happens when all treatments have failed, but a team of people – such as doctors, nurses, social workers and others – helping make sure Canadians have what they need to continue fighting while relieving the severity of symptoms and improving quality of life. According to palliative care experts, part of the challenge is that there will be legislation around the right to assisted death but there is neither legislation nor enough clinicians to adequately provide end-of-life care across Canada.

Dr. Jeff Myers, the head of Palliative Care at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, believes end-of-life care should be provided by family doctors, specialists and many other health care professionals who are already treating people for disease. This includes basic symptom management, emotional and mental health support, and the ability to discuss advance care planning and goals of care. He said then we can be certain that people are making assisted dying requests having had access to the full spectrum of care, regardless of how long they have left to live and regardless of what challenging conditions they are living with.

Another end-of-life care expert, Harvey Max Chochinov, who is Canada Research Chair in Palliative Care and Director of the Manitoba Palliative Care Research Unit, wrote in The Toronto Star last year that despite the impressive strides that palliative care has taken, physicians have been taught less about pain management than those graduating from veterinary medicine. Once in practice, most physicians have knowledge deficiencies that can significantly impair their ability to manage cancer pain. Doctors are also not generally well-trained to engage in end-of-life conversations, meaning that goals of care often remain unclear; and patients may not receive the care they want or the opportunity to live out their final days in the place they would want to die.

According to Professor Chochinov, it is unfortunate that for 70 to 80 percent of Canadians, palliative care is not available and, therefore, not a real choice. It is concerning that we might become a country that extends patients the right to a hastened death, but offers no legislative guarantees or assurances that they will be well looked after until they die.

Palliative care doctors are urging the Canadian government to improve and standardize end-of-life care across the country. According to Dr. David Henderson, President of the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians, there is a lack of palliative care service and it is unevenly distributed. In Canada, the federal government provides guidelines on health services and funding, but the provinces and territories manage them. Palliative care doctors would like to see one body set up to decide what are best practices in end-of-life care, how to mobilize them and set standards, and to collect data. Dr. Henderson said there needs to be palliative care training for new doctors and other health care workers as well as upgrading of skills for those already practicing. Fewer Canadians might opt for doctor-assisted death if palliative care services were improved.

Dr. Henderson also recently co-wrote in a Globe and Mail op-ed article with Dr. Susan MacDonald, Past President of the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians, that while Bill C-14 is in the process of becoming law, palliative care units in Ontario are closing due to funding cuts, and there is no law on the table about the right to end-of-life care. Tragically, many people die at home, with no access to palliative care supports such as home care nursing or visits from a family doctor or, when needed, a palliative care team.

The two doctors strongly advocated that now is the time for a national palliative-care program. “Dying is a part of life,” they said. “We should not let our incomes, our postal codes or our family support networks determine how well or how poorly we die. We need to think about this, discuss it – and fix it. The time is right to insist that our health ministers address this issue in Canada’s new health accord.”

Too much focus has been placed on the June 6 deadline for passing Bill C-14, but not enough discussions have been made on understanding the urgency of universal access to quality palliative care in Canada. As the nation debates its response to the court’s decision, it is, perhaps, equally important for federal and provincial governments to make sizable investments in hospice and palliative care in order to offer patients and families choices that are fair, compassionate and real.

Last month, The Economist‘s article, Cheating Death, conjured up the distant possibility of slowing, and even abolishing, aging all together with successful scientific research and breakthroughs. With the increase of average lifespans over the past century, the new extension of human life can be brought about by specific anti-senescence drugs, some of which may already exist.

The publication reported that life for many people could be extended to today’s ceiling of 120 or so. Centenarians might be less of a rarity as worn-out body parts will be repaired or replaced, DNA will be optimized for long life and more anti-aging drugs will be at work.

It seems like everybody wants longevity, but few have thought about how long life can exacerbate existing social and economic problems. Social inequity will become more of a problem if wealthy people are given preferential access to anti-senescence treatment which could be very expensive.

Already, a lot of millennials resent their boomer colleagues now because the latter are reluctant to retire and are, therefore, perceived to limit the careers of their younger subordinates. If older workers can live even longer, bosses might increasingly cling on to their senior positions and be reluctant to let go.

If you think boomers have been delaying retirement now for the lack of savings, retirement would even become a more distant option for most. People might want to expand their careers by going back to school in their 50s to learn how to do something completely different. The enviable professions such as accountants and lawyers might be less craved for just because people with longer lives could shift to a totally different profession in order to try out something new within their extra-long lifespan.

Longevity will also be detrimental to family life too. The feasibility of people tying the knot in their 20s and be expected with the same person 80 years later seems dismal. As The Economist said, “the one-partner life, already on the decline, could become rare, replaced by a series of relationships, each as long as what many today would consider a decent marital stretch.”

This is, of course, a pessimist’s point of view. An optimist would consider a longer life a happier life, provided that you’re still physically and mentally healthy! According to a recent study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, older people tend to be happier than younger people, and their happiness increases with age.

The New York Times reported that researchers in the study contacted 1,546 people aged 21 to 99 via random telephone calls and found that older age was associated with higher levels of overall satisfaction, happiness and well-being, and lower levels of anxiety, depression and stress. The older the person, the study found, the better his or her mental health tended to be.

According to the senior author of the study, Dr. Dilip V. Jeste, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, “Brain studies show that the amygdala in older people responds less to stressful or negative images than in a younger person. We become wise. Peer pressure loses its sting. Better decision-making, more control of emotions, doing things that are not just for yourself, knowing oneself better, being more studious and yet more decisive.”

So, there you go – if we can combine an age-defying body with a contented mental state, longevity might be something to look forward to after all so long as you have the financial resources to sustain your long life as well!

Photo Credit: Ottawa Citizen

2016 was full of bad news, so let’s hope the new year is going to bring more good tidings, particularly for us boomers! Based on some of the developments last year, here are my anticipated top 10 good news for the new year:

1. Canada Continues to Be The Shining Light Of the World: Canada graced the October 29 cover and feature story of The Economist magazine last year. The publication said that our nation is uniquely fortunate in many ways – but its liberalism and tolerance hold lessons for other Western countries and went on to explain why Canada is still at ease with openness. Under Justin Trudeau’s leadership, we might not be perfect, but Canada will continue to be a champion of immigration, open trade and the fight against climate change. For 2017, I have to quote retired Global TV journalist, Tom Clark, as he said farewell to his career on December 31, “For all of our troubles, all of our scandals and disagreements, we should try to keep things in perspective. In global terms, our problems are small. Our country works better than most, perhaps better than any other. We should always aim higher. But let’s remember how blessed we really are.”
2. Canada officially kicked off our 150th Anniversary of the Confederation on December 31: In addition to a special commemorative 150th Anniversary coin series produced by the Royal Canadian Mint, there will be numerous special celebratory events and festivities in local communities and urban centres across the country throughout the year. Under the umbrella theme of “Diversity, Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, the Environment and Youth,” the Department of Canadian Heritage has budgeted $180 million for a variety of initiatives across the country and $20 million for special events such as the New Year’s Eve party on Parliament Hill.. According to a recent government-commissioned poll, nearly nine in 10 respondents expressed a lot of pride in being Canadian, and they felt strongly attached to their country. Nearly the same number said they would visit a national park in 2017 or attend a Canada 150 event. But, as of last summer, few had heard much about what the government was doing to celebrate. Looks like the government has a lot of marketing and promotion work to do on upcoming celebrations.
3. From brain drain to brain gain for Canada in a Trump presidency: Canada’s tech firms are hoping Donald Trump will help keep Canadian graduates from skipping town for Silicon Valley and perhaps lure some of the talented expats who have gone south for work. According to CTV News, Canadian companies large and small have quietly bemoaned the exodus of talent for decades, and agencies like Communitech and the City of Toronto have been trying to woo them back. That’s why billboards have been placed on well-travelled Route 101 in Silicon Valley promoting “GoNorthCanada.ca,” a website extolling the values of tech jobs in Ontario. Communitech said that the site has seen spikes since Trump’s victory. “People are reaching out and letting us know they are ready to come home,” said Communitech’s vice-president Heather Galt. With the growth of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) industry and the important research role that Canada has been playing, the nation can further benefit from a brain gain. Last year, Google has announced that it is investing $4.5 million in the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms, the latest sign of Google’s growing interest in AI. As part of the deal, Google will open an AI research group in Montreal. The company believes the city has the potential to become a “super-cluster” of machine learning knowledge. Some large companies have also recently moved their AI divisions to Toronto, including Thomson Reuters and General Motors, with the intention of hiring hundreds of data scientists. According to The Globe and Mail, many of Canada’s largest companies have also stated a desire to hire thousands more data scientists in the coming years. Demand for talent already outstrips supply, and the gap will only grow. Now is the opportune time for Canadian AI companies to spread their recruitment net wider to include the U.S. so that we can benefit from a larger pool of AI research talents.
4. The Paris climate change agreement was signed by 194 countries and ratified by 121 members, including the U.S. and China, by the end of last year: In spite of what Donald Trump said, it would not be easy for him to repeal this accord. With the enforcement of this agreement, nearly 200 governments will become obliged to meet emissions-cutting pledges made before the deal. The agreement would also commit the countries to aspire to keep temperatures below 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. The agreement went into effect on November 4, 2016, which means that 2017 will see a lot of countries starting to move in the direction of reducing greenhouse gases. In Canada, Prime Minister Trudeau and most of the premiers (except for Saskatchewan and Manitoba) signed a historic pan-Canadian framework last month to fight climate change and meet the country’s 2030 emissions reduction targets.
5. Self-Driving cars from science fiction to science fact: after the first series of successful pilot-tests of self-driving vehicles in both the U.S. and Canada last year, these autonomous cars will hit the street in larger numbers in 2017. Last month, Alphabet, the owners of Google, spun off the research and development of self-driving technology into a separate company with the name of Waymo. The company has partnered with Chrysler to develop self-driving Pacific Hybrid minivans. Test units will hit the road over the next several months. According to technology news website Dice.com, expect Uber and Tesla to speed up with making their autonomous-driving offerings as advanced as possible in 2017. This development will drastically improve the quality of lives for aging populations across North America.
6. On the health front, 2017 will be a breakthrough year for the fight against Ebola. An Ebola vaccine developed by Canadian researchers and considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be the first effective treatment against the virus has already started a new phase of clinical trials. The vaccine’s safety and effectiveness were tested on volunteers infected with HIV, starting in Ottawa and Montreal last November, and followed by trials in the new year in Senegal and Burkina Faso. According to the principal investigator Cecile Tremblay, “It is particularly important to study the effectiveness of this Ebola vaccine in vulnerable populations, such as those living with HIV. These populations can often be most at-risk during outbreaks, because of their compromised immune systems.” The Ebola vaccine, originally developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada, provided blanket protection in a field trial in Guinea in 2015. Health Minister Jane Philpott said that the next phase of clinical trials in 2017 is an important milestone in the development of the world’s first proven, effective vaccine against the Ebola virus.
7. A revolutionary blood test that can detect cancer can become part of an annual physical in five years. Liquid biopsies, as the blood tests are known, can give physicians a telltale sign of the presence of the disease in almost all types of cancer mutations. For cancer patients undergoing treatment, liquid biopsies could spare them some of the painful, expensive and risky tissue tumor biopsies and reduce reliance on CT scans, which must be limited because of the danger posed by overexposure to radiation. Medical experts say that the liquid biopsy has come a long way in the past year and a half. According to CNBC, doctors and medical researchers are excited by the prospect that liquid biopsies would be a way to help people already fighting the disease. The new year will bring even more research and development in cancer centres across the U.S. on how a non-invasive blood test could be appropriate in many cases to identify the DNA mutation driving cancer forward.
8. New eye drops can dissolve cataracts with no need for surgery. We’ve all read about a new study that used eye drops to shrink cataracts in dogs may have made an important step in overcoming them. According to Professor Kang Zhang, from the University of California San Diego, whose research team developed the eye drops, this new drug could play an important role in the prevention of cataracts in those showing early signs. Although at this stage eye drops have the potential to overcome a number of limitations of surgery, they won’t be able to replace it yet. According to Dr. Manuel Datiles, a senior investigator and attending ophthalmologist at the U.S. National Eye Institute in the National Institutes of Health, eye drops will become key in treating cataracts, as surgery will not be able to cope with the growing needs of the world’s aging population. The new year will also bring more research and development to investigate whether there can be more medical breakthroughs in this area.
9. On the arts and culture front, we could not have asked for a better year than 2017 when Canadian musicians took the Grammy nominations by storm and two Canuck male lead actors were nominated for the Golden Globe Awards. After a year of Canadian dominance on the international music scene, Drake, Justin Bieber and The Weeknd were nominated for many categories in the 2017 Grammy Awards. Drake leads with a whopping eight nominations while Bieber fares well with four. Other Canucks on the list include R&B singer Tory Lanez, Vancouver-formed and now Brooklyn-based duo Bob Moses, jazz musician and composer Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Toronto-based record producer Nineteen85, and the renowned classical music conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin in the Best Opera Recording category. We all look forward to awards night on February 12 when we will see how much hardware these artists will bring home! On the big screen, two Canucks will go head-to-head in the best actor category for a musical or comedy. Ryan Gosling, from London, Ontario, was nominated for his lead role in La La Land while Vancouver-native Ryan Reynolds is also up for his comedic performance in Deadpool. (Gosling eventually took home the Golden Globe and will, almost for sure, be nominated for a Best Actor Oscar!)
10. Canada tops The New York Times‘s 52 Places To Go in 2017. On January 4, The New York Times put Canada number one on its annual list of places to go in the new year. According to the publication, Canada has it all – from cosmopolitan cities to barely explored natural wonders and everything in between. It also mentioned that all of the country’s more than 200 national parks and historic sites are offering free admission through our 150th Anniversary year, “from the turquoise lakes and mountain peaks of Banff in Alberta to the rolling dunes and red sandstone cliffs of Prince Edward Island along the Atlantic Coast to the newest reserve, the glacial-rounded Mealy Mountains in Labrador.” Looks like Tourism Canada did a better job in marketing our country as a travel destination to our neighbours down south than to fellow Canadians!

With all these good news, let’s move forward into the future with more positive thinking and cast away all the bad news of 2016. A new year is always a new beginning with new hope!

Photo Credit: Evidence Network

Two years ago, I posted an article on this blog entitled “Time To Introduce Universal Drugs Plan Is Now,” saying that the Federal Government seemed to be dragging their feet at the introduction of a national pharmacare program for Canada. With the advent of our nation’s 150th birthday this year, very little has been done.

Canada is the only industrialized country with universal health insurance that does not offer universal prescription drug coverage. Statistics show that one in 10 Canadians cannot afford to pay for their medications. When people do not take the drugs they need, there is a cost to health and to medicare when our hospitals are already overwhelmed.

Now, an official study has just come out in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) which concluded that Canadians and private drug plan sponsors could save more than $4 billion a year if the federal government adopted universal coverage for a group of commonly prescribed essential medicines. The Globe and Mail reported that the study used economic modelling to determine the government would have to spend an estimated $1.2 million a year to provide universal coverage for 117 essential medicines, which accounted for 44 percent of the prescriptions filled in Canada in 2015. Individuals and private plans would save close to $4.3 billion if such a system were introduced, according to the economic modelling used in the study.

The rationale is that the government would be able to use bulk purchasing power, which is why it would cost so much less to cover the cost of those essential medicines – drugs that are deemed necessary for public health – than it would be for individuals and private drug plans. The drugs include those used to treat some heart conditions, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV, anaphylaxis and migraines.

Not surprisingly, the federal government is facing increasing pressure to address the rising cost of prescription drugs, but has not committed to a national pharmacare program. The researchers of the study found Canada pays substantially more than Sweden, New Zealand and the U.S. Veteran Affairs drug program for the same generic medications. According to Dr. Steve Morgan, one of the study’s authors, and a professor at the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, the benefit of having a universal plan is to make sure that nobody is left out in the cold. An earlier research authored by Dr. Morgan found many Canadians don’t take their prescribed medication because they can’t afford the cost.  He found that one in eight Canadians aged between 55 and 64 falls into this category.

One possible reason why the federal government has not yet made a commitment to national pharmacare could be concerns about whether it should cover the cost of all medicines, even those that are expensive or prone to inappropriate prescribing. But this latest study recommended that the government undertake a universal drug program based on an evidence-based list of essential medicines as defined by the World Health Organization.

Ontario’s Health Minister Eric Hoskins has been taking an initiative in leading a crusade to make universal pharmacare happen in Canada sooner rather than later. Two years ago, he seemed to be targeting Canada’s 150th birthday this year as the most ideal date to launch a universal drug plan. But, so far, it does not look very likely that this will happen! In a January interview with the CBC, federal Health Minister Jane Philpott said she plans to bring in new rules that would force drug companies to lower the price of brand-name drugs and will work to help lower the price of generic drugs. But relying on drug companies’ initiatives will not entirely solve the problem and will take a very long time. As Dr. Morgan said, this latest CMAJ study clearly show that some sort of universal drug coverage is the best solution and would benefit Canadians without a massive price increase. The Trudeau government needs to show some leadership and take some urgent action as Canada’s population continues to age rapidly.

A new report released last month by the Canadian Cancer Society, in partnership with the Public Health Agency of Canada and Statistics Canada, predicted that almost one in every two Canadians is expected to be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime and one in four Canadians will die from the disease. The charitable organization indicated that the latest statistics show that cancer is now the leading cause of death in Canada.

According to the Society’s epidemiologist and one of the report’s authors, Dr. Leah Smith, currently every year there is an increase in the number of cancer cases in Canada. “So between now and 2030, for example, we expect to continue to see a dramatic increase in the number of cancers diagnosed in Canada. The lifetime risk (an individual’s likelihood of being diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives) for Canadian men is 49 percent, while it sits at 45 percent for women.

Dr. Smith also said that these statistics are a reflection of the aging and growing population. “About 90 percent of all the cancers that we expect to be diagnosed in 2017 will be among Canadians 50 years of age and older.” About 45 percent of those cases will occur in people aged 70 and older, said Dr. Smith, noting that as more people move into old age, the number of cancer cases will rise.

The Cancer Society’s report also showed that lung cancer is the most commonly-diagnosed cancer overall, making up 14 percent of all diagnoses, followed by colorectal, breast and prostate cancers. Lung cancer is also the leading cause of cancer deaths among Canadians. Of the four top cancer killers, pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate at only eight percent. It’s anticipated to be the third-leading cause of cancer deaths in Canada.

Canadians, both young and old, were shocked to hear this bad news. According to a report by Global News, the numbers seem shocking and alarming but it’s reminding Canadians how many people will be touched by cancer. The Cancer Society also said that it takes a huge toll on individuals who have a cancer diagnosis, on their loved ones and on the healthcare system.

In the past three years, I’ve lost at least three boomer friends to cancer. In spite of the sobering statistics, the good news is that overall cancer survival rates have increased: in the 1940s, only 25 percent of Canadians survived their diagnoses, but now 60 percent do. Some cancers, like thyroid and testicular, have five-year survival rates of over 90 percent.

What can we do to reduce our risk of cancer? In addition to regular check-ups and cancer screens, we can focus on a healthier lifestyle by avoiding tobacco, excessive drinking, eating well, exercising, maintaining a healthy body weight and practising sun safety.

We can only do our best because unfortunately some cancers are just unavoidable. According to a new research at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, only about 42 percent of cancers are preventable. Using health records from 69 countries, the scientists of this study concluded that 66 percent of cancer-causing genetic mutations arise from the “bad luck” of a healthy dividing cell making a random mistake when it copies its DNA. About 29 percent are due to the environment and the remaining five percent are due to heredity. These numbers also vary depending on the type of cancer, the authors of this research found. At least 60 percent of mutations triggering skin and lung cancer are due to the environment, they calculate, compared with 15 percent or less in prostate, bone, brain and breast cancers. The bad news is that most mutations arise naturally and there is nothing people can do. The causes of cancer are complex and until more breakthrough research results tell us more, let’s try to maintain a healthy lifestyle and live life to its fullest.

I recently conducted an interview with a freelance journalist who was drafting an article on the latest boomer-travel trends for publication in a newsletter for Manulife Financial. I told her that wellness and slow travel will become a major trend for this demographic for the next decade or so.

According to the Canadian Tourism Research Institute (CTRI), an offshoot of the not-for-profit Conference Board of Canada, baby boomers will be the main pleasure-travel market over the next 10 years, spending more than CDN$35 billion annually. Because boomers are healthier and living longer than their parents, they want to maintain their good health to enjoy life and their new-found freedom after retirement. This explains why they want wellness and fitness programs, not only in their daily lives, but also when they travel.

Research by the Global Wellness Institute (GWI) confirms that wellness is one of the world`s fastest-growing, most resilient markets – clocking double-digit growth while the global economy shrank by -3.6 percent. According to data released by GWI in October 2016, the global wellness industry grew 10.6 percent in the last two years, from a US$3.36 trillion market in 2013 to US$3.72 trillion in 2015. Among the 10 wellness sectors analyzed, fitness and mind-body (+21 percent), and wellness tourism (+14 percent) were among the top five fastest-growing from 2013 to 2015. Wellness tourism now accounts for 15.6 percent of total tourism revenues – amounting to almost one in six of total tourist dollars spent. One of the major contributors to this growth is the baby boomers who are seeking experiences rooted in meaning, purpose, authenticity and nature.

Wellness incorporates fitness, mental and physical health improvement, as well as eating healthy. Over the past decade, boomers are looking for healthy hotels, wholistic cruises, hiking, cycling, mindfulness and yoga retreats, medical tourism and more. Everyday commitments, particularly for those who are still working, prevent boomers from participating in fitness activities or attaining health goals. So, vacations focusing on wellness – adventure, exercise, self-improvement or volunteerism – become more and more compelling.

I always remind people that due to the almost 20-year-gap between the youngest Canadian boomers born in 1966 to the oldest ones born in 1947, we cannot lump all boomers together. For the younger boomers, who are probably still working, exercise, fitness and cycling vacations may be more appealing. According to Forbes Magazine, slow-travel programs that bring people to national parks and forests for one- or two-week guided backpacking adventures seem to be an ideal exercise and fitness vacation for younger boomers who want to unplug, de-stress and recharge. Canada`s Fitz and Fowell based in Montreal and Cycle Treks in Victoria, B.C., also offer cycling tours, whale watching, culinary tours or a seaside trek.

For the older boomers, also called leading-edge boomers, mindfulness or yoga retreats may be the way to go. The Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California, which also houses the Chopra Center  for Wellbeing, helps groups incorporate wellness into their workplace and personal lives. Mindfulness, offered by Miraval Resort and Spa in Tucson, Arizona, includes programs that cover healthy lifestyle changes, self-discovery and transformation. Apart from spas, more and more hotels are joining the wellness bandwagon. Westin Hotels recently launched a US$15 million well-being campaign for both employees and guests to smile and listen more, worry less and sleep better.

Although cruise lines have recently begun to lure millennial travellers, boomers remain their most stalwart customers. Celebrity Cruises emphasizes on well-being centred on mind, body and spirit. The cruise line has a special program dedicated to seven different types of yoga. Passengers can also enjoy other fitness classes such as Pilates, indoor cycling as well as personal training focusing on blood pressure, bone health and more. With the current huge interest in ballroom dancing, cruise lines such as Cunard and Crystal receive accolades on their devotion to ballroom dancing. Professionals teach waltz, tango, samba and other dances during the day, and passengers can practice their moves at themed formal balls held in the evenings. Crystal also provides gentlemen hosts present on every cruise to make sure single ladies do not turn into wallflowers.

Oceania, Regent Seven Seas and Cunard`s Queen Mary 2 all integrate the Canyon Ranch Spa dining menu on board. Each cruise line offers the specialty spa cuisines in select restaurants throughout their ships. The menu includes organic foods and dishes high in protein, fibre and healthy fats, as well as vegetarian options.

In addition to ocean cruise vacations, leading-edge boomers are also increasingly attracted to river cruises which offer slow and leisurely travel. A Rhine or Danube river cruise offers passengers cycling tours through the countryside and cities, or even encourages cruisers to  ride along the river, catching up with the ship in the next port. River cruises also offer culinary cooking classes which can include a visit to the local market with the chef, shopping for fresh seafood and produce at ports of call.

Last, but not least, solo travel has become a growing trend. Whether they have just lost a loved one or going through a divorce, boomers refuse to stop travelling. According to Visa`s Global Travel Intention Study 2015, the number of affluent adults, who vacation on their own, has more than doubled to 32 percent, up from 14 percent in 2013. Travel companies, cruise lines and the wellness industry are already adjusting their travel offers to better accommodate solo travellers.

With longer lifespans and a greater emphasis on health and fitness, boomers will continue to be interested in wellness travel for many more years to come. Marketers and the travel industry stand to win big if they pay greater attention to and focus more efforts on offering new and meaningful experiences for this affluent demographic.

I have more than once advocated the support of a national pharmacare program for Canada on this blog. It, therefore, gave me hope when the Trudeau Government recently plucked Ontario’s Health Minister, Eric Hoskins, to chair a special Federal Commission to look into the introduction of a national pharmacare program for the nation. Yesterday, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said that her budget will include a blueprint to expand Ontario’s pharmacare program, known as OHIP-plus, which currently covers people up to the age of 25. She said she will move forward without the federal government for now and beginning August 1, 2019, seniors will no longer have to pay a deductible or co-payment for more than 4,400 prescription drugs.

Skeptics immediately said that both the Federal and Ontario Liberal Governments made these promises to win votes in the upcoming elections. For the highly unpopular Kathleen Wynne, in particular, this is obviously a campaign promise to woo the votes of the boomer and senior populations. She says the program will cost $575 million a year when it is fully operational in 2020-21. Drugs covered in the program include medications for cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes and asthma. Campaign promises can be broken but this latest announcement has won my vote.

Health care ranks highly among voter concerns in national polls, so it did not surprise me when Finance Minister Bill Morneau introduced the feasibility study of a national pharmacare program when he unveiled the Federal budget last month. The budget announced the creation of an advisory council, headed by Dr. Eric Hoskins, that would investigate whether public health-insurance plans could be expanded to cover prescription drugs. A national pharmacare plan had been previously proposed by the New Democratic Party (NDP).

The appointment of Dr. Hoskins, in itself, is already a step in the right direction. Dr. Hoskins, while in office as Ontario’s Health Minister, has always been a strong advocate for a national pharmacare program. In his new role, he will study the options, their costs, explain the trade-offs and determine which is the most feasible. Currently, about 26 million Canadians have private drug benefits, largely through employers. There are 102 public drug insurance programs, but that still leaves 700,000 people with no drug coverage, and an estimated 3.6 million with inadequate coverage, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

A national pharmacare plan could save anywhere from $4 billion to $11 billion on the $28.5-billion prescription drug bill (from 2015). These savings could come from joint buying, more strictly regulating drug prices, more aggressive use of generics, and limiting the list of drugs that are covered. The Globe and Mail reported that while a single, national plan would theoretically save money on drug purchases, it would also mean a large-scale shifting of costs from the private sector to the public sector. The single biggest obstacle to pharmacare is the unwillingness of federal, provincial and territorial governments to absorb those costs and then increase taxes to pay the bill.

National pharmacare means insuring that every Canadian has access to necessary prescription drugs regardless of ability to pay. This philosophy has very few detractors, but there are many technical, financial and political impediments. But the appointment of Dr. Hoskins to chair the advisory council suggested the government’s seriousness about this initiative. It is well known that Dr. Hoskins, a physician himself, is a long-time proponent of an ambitious national pharmacare program. He has publicly backed that the best way of doing pharmacare is to throw out the system we currently have. The basic idea is that medically necessary drugs would be covered under the Canada Health Act and provided by provincial health plans for everybody, including those who now have private insurance. The federal government’s bulk-buying power would drive down prices for these new plans. People who felt the public coverage was inadequate could buy supplementary insurance on the private market, just like they can under medicare.

Skeptics and the Opposition are already criticizing the Trudeau government for paying lip service. But given Dr. Hoskins’s credentials and track record, and the timing of the Federal elections next year, it will only work to the Liberals’ advantage to devise a fiscally-responsible national pharmacare plan that would work.

Judging from the latest national polls, the Federal Government seems to be on the right track. A new Nanos Research poll that surveyed 1,000 Canadian adults by phone and online between March 7 and March 12, after the Liberals tabled their third federal budget on February 27, indicated that Canadians support the idea of public health insurance that covers prescription drugs. But they don’t like running deficits nor do they want new taxes to pay for the programs. But Canadians cannot have their cake and eat it too! How will the national pharmacare program be paid for otherwise? The NDPs have not come up with a good idea for financing this program either. So we should let Dr. Hoskins do his job and come up with a sensible plan. In Canada, we have had public hospital insurance since 1957, and public insurance for physicians since 1966. It is about time that we see another large-scale national health initiative on the horizon.

Photo Credit: Canadian Career College

The New York Times reported recently that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics analysis, among the 10 occupations expected to grow the most through 2026, personal care and home-health aides will require the most new workers, with 1.2 million new positions between them. About 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day, and more than half will need long-term care, according to the Pew Research Center.

Home-care agencies and elderly-care facilities are apparently struggling to recruit. Last year, 26 percent of personal-care aides and home-health aides in the U.S. were foreign born, according to the Conference Board. In New York, 62 percent of home aides were foreign born. In California, Massachusetts and New Jersey, foreigners represented nearly half of them. That is why a recent bill introduced by the Republicans and supported by the White House to create a point system for admission based on factors including education, English skills and job offers in the U.S., which would cut the overall number of green cards awarded each year by half, worries employers who rely on immigrant labour. Senior-care agencies particularly are worried because many are dependent on Medicaid and Medicare and so cannot easily raise wages to make their jobs more attractive to native-born workers. According to a Washington think-tank, the Center for Global Development, the U.S. needs far more new low-skilled workers than high-skilled workers. Only three of the 10 occupations expected to grow in demand require university degrees, all of them digital or data-focused: software developers, statisticians and mathematicians.

In Ontario, Canada, to meet the increasing demand for home care, the role of personal support workers (PSWs) is shifting from providing primarily personal and supportive care to include care activities previously provided by regulated health professionals (RHPs). Findings from a recent review of home-care service user charts in Ontario, Canada, indicate that normally, PSWs provide personal and supportive care commensurate with their training. However, in approximately one quarter of care plans reviewed, PSWs also completed more complex-care activities transferred to them by RHPs. Service users receiving transferred care were older and had higher levels of cognitive and functional impairment. As the population ages in Ontario, the demand for PSWs performing more complex tasks is only going to increase substantially.

That is why the Liberal government in Ontario is creating a new provincial agency called Personal Support Services Ontario that could eventually serve hundreds of thousands of patients in the province. CBC News reported that this move would mean PSWs will become provincial employees. It also has the potential to take a significant portion of the $2.5 billion in annual publicly-funded home care away from the for-profit and not-for-profit agencies currently providing it. The government says creating the agency would give home-care clients more choice in selecting a PSW and more control in determining their care schedule. As with other new government policies, there are supporters and naysayers.

The plan is laid out in a Ministry of Health document dated October 2017 which says  Personal Support Services Ontario will be created soon to deliver home care in the spring. It also says the new provincial agency will directly recruit, screen and employ PSWs. Some 729,000 people received provincially-funded home care services in 2015-16. Nearly all of that care was delivered by nurses and PSWs employed by outside agencies, both for-profit and not-for-profit. The document says that the new provincial agency would initially provide PSWs to clients who need a high volume of home care –  at least 14 hours per week.

We all know that in 2015, the auditor general criticized the regional agencies that coordinated home-care services, the Community Care Access Centres (CCACs). Critics also questioned how much of the CCAC budget went into administration instead of home care and found that nurses employed directly by the CCACs were paid more than those employed by agencies. This all prompted the government to eventually dismantle the CCACs effective as of April last year.

While the creation of Personal Support Services Ontario seems to be a good idea, more time and work should be dedicated to providing better training to the PSWs and improving the efficiency of home-care delivery. We do not need a new provincial agency to reinvent the wheel and recreating a similar bureaucracy to the CCACs while thousands of seniors continue to be on the waiting list for the services of PSWs. With the upcoming provincial leadership elections, it would be interesting to see how the Wynne government would tackle this important new policy.

Photo Credit : Huffington Post

Two recent celebrity suicides sparked off a lot of discussions about mental health issues. Both Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain were unlikely victims of suicides because they appeared happy, perky and financially sound. Yet, both of them had suffered from depression and addiction for a long time and they both chose to hang themselves to end their “misery”.

Their deaths coincided with a new report released last week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suicide rates rose in all but one state between 1999 and 2016, with increases seen across age, gender, race and ethnicity. In more than half of all deaths in 27 states, the people had no known mental health condition when they ended their lives.

Increasingly, suicide is being viewed not only as a mental health problem, but a public health one. Nearly 45,000 suicides occurred in the U.S. in 2016 – more than twice the number of homicides – making it the 10th leading cause of death. Among people aged 15 to 34, suicide is the second leading cause of death.

In Canada, the situation is equally stark. According to The Globe and Mail, about 3,000 people worldwide die by suicide every day – including 125 in the United States and 10 in Canada. Statistics Canada figures indicated that in 2009, there were 3,890 suicides in Canada, a rate of 11.5 per 100,000 people. The suicidal rate for males was three times higher than the rate for females (17.9 versus 5.3 per 100,000). Although suicide deaths affect almost all age groups, those aged 40 to 59 had the highest rates. Married people had a lower suicide rate than those who were single, divorced or widowed.

For seniors, the situation is even worse. Over 10 seniors (60+) die by suicide every week in Canada and approximately 1,000 older adults are admitted to Canadian hospitals each year as a consequence of intentional self-harm. Seniors are, in fact, one of the most at-risk demographic when it comes to suicide. Of that demographic, men over the age of 65+ are the most at risk.

For older adults, in particular, depression is the most common mental health problem due to loss of family and friends, debilitating sicknesses or disease, and a loss of independence and the isolation that can ensue. In an interview with CTV, Dr. Leon Kagan, the director of Geriatric Psychiatry at the University of Alberta, suggests that isolation is a key factor in driving thoughts of suicide among seniors. “These older individuals are having everything taken away from them in terms of their work, their health, their families and finding their role diminished. For some of them, taking their own lives seem to be the only option that they have.”

But suicide rates can be reduced by confronting and talking about depression and offering help to those suffering from prolonged sadness. The Globe and Mail pointed out one of the saddest aspects of the stories about Kate Spade was the revelation that she hesitated to get help for her crushing depression because she worried it would hurt her brand, built on cheerful and brightly-coloured handbags and clothes. Depression is often hidden behind a front of happiness. There is also the stigma of mental illness – victims and family members often feel ashamed of talking openly about their condition. Although this stigma has gradually been fading, the greatest barrier for many is not fear of seeking treatment, but access to treatment.

In Canada, the waits for psychiatric care are disturbingly long. The barriers to accessing psychological services tend to be financial – psychotherapy is not covered by publicly-funded health insurance and private insurance tends to offer limited coverage. The media should tell people that mental illnesses are treatable and instead of glorifying celebrity suicides, they should report on cases in which mentally-depressed patients have recovered by seeking proper treatment. Many people who consider or attempt suicide do get help and they get better.

For older adults, the magnitude of death by suicide is a fact that is under-reported and needs to be discussed more openly so that caregivers and families of older adults can better understand the warning signs of depression and suicide and offer up the help they need.

According to the Canadian Association of Suicide Prevention (CASP), the events that trigger suicide thoughts in seniors are unique and can differ from those that might lead to depression or mental health struggles within a younger demographic. While sadness is the most obvious system of depression, depression can actually exist without sadness.

The CASP website indicated that if an older adult is exuding the following traits, they might be at risk for depression or suicide:

• Fatigue (difficulty falling asleep)
• Loss of interest in hobbies or pleasurable pastimes
• Social withdrawal and isolation
• Loss of self-worth
• Weight loss or loss of appetite
• Fixation on death
• Recent passing of a loved one
• Lingering health problems

The most useful way to offer help to anybody suffering from depression is to to tell them that they are not alone. Let them know that there are people who want to help, and that with the right support, they can find hope again. In addition to having an open conversation about depression and suicide, you can suggest a change in routine by encouraging the people at risk to be involved in activities within their community. Some people need to talk regularly about how they feel in order to shift perspectives, so you can help them out by doing the research on professionals to talk to and, if possible, offer to drive them to and from appointments. When someone knows that others need them to live, it can discourage them from taking their own life. You can organize family time whenever possible and surround the person at risk with love, affection and reassurance that they are not alone.

We also need to tackle the societal problems that can fuel and trigger mental illness and suicidal thoughts – sexual and physical abuse, bullying, trauma, isolation, poverty and more. Anyone can help and little gestures matter. There is hope and we CAN reduce suicide rates if we try harder.

The big hoopla about Canada’s legalization of cannabis has finally subsided a bit. I believe that very little will change in terms of behaviour. According to Statistics Canada, 4.9 million of Canadians already consumed $5.7-billion worth of cannabis in various forms, both medical and non-medical, last year. Boomers, in particular, are no strangers to cannabis. From their Woodstock days, boomers have smoked joints at concerts and college parties. Now that they are aging, baby boomers are seeking cannabis more as a pain relief rather than for recreational purposes.

Investor’s Business Daily cited a report from the marijuana delivery platform Eaze, which operated in California where recreational cannabis is also legal, which found that monthly marijuana spending last year among its thousands of users increased to US$179-$189 from US$125-$152 in 2016. An average-size pot dispensary draws more average yearly sales per square foot than a Whole Foods, and slightly less than a Costco, research from Cowen and Marijuana Business Daily has shown.

One reason why investors seem to have confidence in cannabis stocks is because a few alcohol companies, such as Molson and Constellation Brands, have taken on minority stakes in Canadian cannabis companies. Alcohol and tobacco companies are actually taking heed of the cannabis market because it directly affects their own businesses. As of 2016, the monthly rate of binge drinking was around 13 percent lower in the U.S. states that had fully legalized pot than in states where it was illegal, according to research from Cowen.

Tobacco companies may also look into having a share of the cannabis market. Vaping is one of the fastest-growing segments in both nicotine and cannabis. According to a Cowen analyst, upon federal legalization, big tobacco could leverage its expertise to explore the legal cannabis market through vapor. It was estimated that big tobacco companies could nearly double their underlying growth via the cannabis market and grab around a fifth of the overall share of the marijuana industry by 2030 in a fully-legal U.S. market. In the meantime, Canada presents a big opportunity for both the tobacco and alcohol industries.

Because the legalization of cannabis is so new in Canada, the marketing of pot has become a major challenge as well as a huge opportunity for marketing companies and law firms. Building brand recognition for cannabis brands is not easy. The Canadian government has rightly imposed hefty restrictions on cannabis companies’ ability to advertise. They cannot use endorsements from celebrities or other well-known individuals or offer up customer testimonials or product reviews. They also cannot advertise cannabis as part of an attractive lifestyle. Anything that could be appealing to young people or visible in media that could reach young people, is banned. That means no billboards and TV commercials.

Many marketers see the evolution of the cannabis industry as similar to the alcohol industry after Prohibition. But as the Federal Health Minister has pointed out, the Liberal government will measure the success of pot legalization in this country by looking at evidence that youth consumption via the black market is on a downward trend. Until the government sees that youth consumption is not rising as a result of legalization, that people are consuming responsibly and that the legal market is leading to a reduction in illicit sales, restrictions about the marketing of cannabis will continue to be very strict.

Cannabis can, of course, be harmful when used irresponsibly, but our nation has a much bigger health crisis in opioid overdoses than the potential harm of smoking weed. To boomers, cannabis therapy can relieve PTSDs and physical pain. We should be proud of our country who is moving forward when the whole world is going backward. After 96 years, marijuana prohibition has finally ended. As the second country, after Uruguay (where users must provide their fingerprints in order to buy pot), and the first major Western country to legalize cannabis and allow its undocumented use, Canada is showing the world how a mature country is handling this in a safe, disciplined and responsible way. The whole world is watching!

It was recently drawn to my attention that there is an Infographic on “The Elderly and The World Wide Web” which explains the U.S. seniors’ relationship with digital technology and how they increasingly rely on the internet to seek healthcare solutions. The infographic at https://medalerthelp.org/elderly-the-world-wide-web/ was developed by medalerthelp.org, a U.S. website that helps seniors differentiate and choose among the many medical alert systems that are available to them in the marketplace. The infographic is very creative in terms of colourful and user-friendly graphics illustrating evidence-based research and content.

Key findings, drawn from different reliable sources including the AARP, Pew Research, and other surveys, include the following:

• Studies show that educated seniors with higher incomes tend to use the internet at higher rates
• 82 percent of boomers/seniors use search engines to gather information on topics of interest
• Baby boomers spend about 27 hours per week online
• 70 percent of internet users aged 65+ use the internet on a typical day
• 66 percent of information accessed by the mature population online is access to news and weather; 57 percent of usage is related to shopping; 44 percent is accessing food information and 43 percent is to play games and related activities
• 71 percent of older internet users go online everyday or almost everyday
• 11 percent go online three to five times a week
• 25 percent of grandparents use email to communicate with their families; 75 percent of seniors use the internet to communicate with friends and family; and 55 percent of seniors follow a group or organization on social networks
• 40 percent of seniors are viewing online videos to stay up-to-date with the latest news
• 53 percent of seniors use the internet to learn about healthcare or medical issues
• 54 percent of seniors watch online video for entertainment
• 26 percent of the mature population say that mental sharpness is an extremely important reason for playing games and 50 percent say it is very important

The top three internet usage by category among American boomers and seniors are: getting health or medical information (66 percent); visit a local, state or federal website (58 percent) and doing banking or financial activities (55 percent).

Other interesting facts include 63 percent of 50 to 59-year-old Americans now access TV content via the internet and baby boomers are 19 percent more likely to share content on Facebook compared to any other generation.

In Canada, a recent study from Media Technology Monitor (MTM) also found that boomers and seniors are enthusiastically consuming content via digital media. Smartphones have found a comfortable home with the boomer demographic – 78 percent of younger boomers (aged 51 to 60) and 66 percent of older boomers (aged 61 to 71) report ownership. Younger boomers are more likely to own tablets and a healthy number of the younger demographic also have gaming consoles.

Canadian boomers’ desktop computer usage is similar to our American counterparts (56 percent vs 58 percent among American boomers). They also don’t appear as interested in wearable technology. The vast majority of older Canadian boomers still have a TV subscription (86 percent), compared to 91 percent of seniors over 72 years old and 65 percent of millennials. While 21 percent of millennials say they have no TV subscriptions but watch that content online, only five percent of young boomers say they have done so. Meanwhile, 21 percent of younger boomers are very or somewhat likely to cancel that subscription.

Around 55 percent of older boomers watch TV exclusively on a traditional TV set, and only one in 20 boomers reported watching TV exclusively online. Seniors over 72 years of age demonstrate the stronger affinity for traditional TV, radio and news platforms. More than nine out of 10 pay for conventional TV, nearly half have newspaper subscriptions and 83 percent report heavy viewing of news specialty channels.

Device use is also predictably lower among older Canadians – 18 percent say they access the internet via a TV set and 24 percent own a smart TV. Another 68 percent own a computer, with laptops surprisingly edging out desktops (47 percent vs 44 percent). Smartphone ownership tops out at 36 percent of seniors aged 72 and above, with tablets appearing in roughly as many senior households (33 percent). Another 25 percent of seniors report owning a “basic” or feature phone. Of the 91 percent of seniors who have a TV subscription, 11 percent were identified as being very or somewhat likely to cut the cord.

According to a TD Bank Group survey titled “Too Shy To DYI,” Canada’s baby boomers are comfortable with the Internet for most things, but a glaring exception is investing online through discount brokerages.

Almost four in five baby boomers (79 percent) use the Internet for banking, but only a meagre 16 percent are online do-it-yourself (DYI) investors, say the poll of 2,000 Canadian adults conducted in July 2017. TD Direct Investing said this behaviour can be attributed to the fact that many say they are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with online investing tools. The survey also found that boomers would invest online if they had a human being to hold their hands in the beginning and ask them investing questions.

According to a Financial Post article, the issue isn’t so much technological savvy as confidence and knowledge about investing. It’s obvious that baby boomers have already integrated technology into their lives in a variety of forms. They can set up a broker account or robo account and transfer money in and out. But many are confused, intimidated or fearful about making the right choices from the thousands of investments available to them.

TD found that 50 percent of boomers spend at least 15 hours a week on the internet, only a tad  less than 58 percent for millennials. Ninety-four percent of Canadian boomers use the Web because it’s convenient and 84 percent find it easy. Seventy-seven percent use the Internet to read news online, 66 percent to shop via Amazon or its rivals, and 64 percent stay connected with friends and family through social media such as Facebook or Twitter.

The main reason for low boomer use of online investing is lack of investment knowledge. TD says 79 percent of those surveyed don’t manage their money online because they simply don’t know enough about investing, while 22 percent say they don’t have enough time to invest on their own.

Unfortunately, when compared to our American counterparts, Canadian boomers are less likely to adopt digital health technology, according to a 2017 study commissioned by Telus Health. According to the survey, Canadians in the boomer (aged 52+) and senior categories (aged 71+) reported that they are most likely to access a healthcare provider (78 percent). However, while 58 percent in this demographic agree that digital health tools would help them connect with their healthcare provider, this group ranks the lowest to use them (20 percent). Further, Canadians aged 52 years and over are 10 percent less likely than younger generations to agree that digital technology empowers them to take control of their health.

While these findings highlight the need to educate and engage all Canadians on the role of digital health technologies, a supplementary survey of Canadian healthcare providers uncovered tremendous support for the role that digital technology plays in staying connected with patients and other healthcare providers.  Whether it’s to book appointments or send an alert when medications are low, three in four healthcare providers report using digital technologies to communicate with patients. Of those healthcare providers surveyed, 80 percent reported using digital technology to communicate with other healthcare professionals; and six in 10 believe that this integrated health team interaction improves patients’ overall wellness.

It looks like that although Canadian boomers and seniors are increasingly comfortable and versatile with technology, they might need more education on the important role digital solutions can play in their financial investments as well as their overall health and wellness.

According to the latest data from Statistics Canada, about 50 percent of Canadians have cared for an aging, sick or disabled family member or friend at some point. Women face a larger caregiving burden: the proportion of women who cared for an adult family member or friend on any given day was three times that of men in 2015. Forty-three percent missed work, 15 percent cut down their hours and 10 percent passed up a promotion or new job because of their caregiving duties.

It is, therefore, important for boomers, many of whom have caregiving duties for their elderly parents, to prepare themselves, and, as much as they can, their employers, about potential scenarios and unexpected crises. Even if caregivers are relying on available services for elder care, even navigating these resources can require a major time commitment. This might involve signing up for home nursing or having a case worker quickly find room in a suitable-care home for their parent; recommending temporary respite care; and day programs that give time for caregivers to look after themselves.

According to The Globe and Mail, provinces in Canada allow 27 or 28 weeks of compassionate leave for caregivers tending to gravely ill or dying relatives, or to people they consider family. Federally, some employment insurance benefits are available as a non-refundable tax credit to family caregivers. Human resources experts said that most organizations will defer to the provincial Employee Standards Act (ESA) regulations, but different employers will provide access to different types of internal leaves and/or may be flexible in how an employee is using their sick days, personal days and vacation days to cover off intermittent absences from work.

Employees should always keep their employers apprised of their personal situation and flexibility from the employer to work with the employee during this period of time will be critical. Employees can take heart in the fact that compassionate care regulations mean that even reticent employers have an obligation to try and be helpful in these situations because boomers are often part of the ‘sandwich’ generation with responsibilities of taking care of both their children as well as their elderly parents.

For employers, apart from observing all government regulations to support caregiving employees, the former should also recognize the economic importance of the latter’s continued participation in the workforce by creating more flexible working schedules. According to the Federal Government’s national seniors strategy policy brief, caregivers often end up earning less and foregoing advancements in their own careers than others without these additional responsibilities. According to the Canadian Caregiving Coalition, a virtual alliance of partner organizations that work collectively to identify and respond to the needs of caregivers in Canada,15 percent of working caregivers reduce their work hours; 40 percent miss days of work; 26 percent take a leave of absence; 10 percent turn down job opportunities; and six percent eventually quit their jobs. While the cost to working caregivers includes lost wages and decreased retirement income, 19 percent further report that their physical and emotional health suffers as well.

For Canadian employers, productivity losses become substantial, with estimations totaling a loss of 18 million work days per year due to missed days and increased employee turnover. It is estimated that the cost to the Canadian economy from lost productivity due to caregiving responsibilities is $1.3 billion per year. Finding ways to better accommodate the needs of older Canadians, including those who may be balancing caregiving duties, can result not only in improved workplace productivity and reduced employee turnover, but an opportunity to retain highly skilled older workers whose experience and expertise are difficult to replace.

According to a recent federally-sponsored Employer Panel for Caregivers report, Canadian employers indicate a clear lack of knowledge around how best to support older Canadians and caregivers in the workplace. Participants indicated that the main barriers for employers in providing support for working caregivers includes lack of awareness, the nature of certain jobs, and a lack of leadership and support to advance best practices and supports. A lack of communication among employers and employees was also considered among the major barriers to supporting working caregivers. The report further explained that fostering a workplace culture that views older workers and caregiving positively must include providing clear information about employer guidelines, sources of information on best practices to support older workers, caregiver benefits available, and leadership and training opportunities which encourage flexible work environments.

It is, therefore, encouraging that the Federal Government is recommending the following options of evidence-based policy options to consider in this area:

• Creating national standards or a framework to support more flexible working environments for older workers and caregivers
• Federal recognition of employers with best practices for engaging and supporting older workers and caregivers

In the meantime, there are a number of measures that employers could consider. According to the Canadian Caregiver Coalition, here are a few tips and tools for employers to prepare their workplace in support of caregivers:

• Recognize employee caregivers within your organization
• Make a supportive environment part of your corporate philosophy
• Be flexible and creative
• Provide employee caregivers with necessary information
• Know your legal obligations
• Evaluate your commitment to a supportive workplace environment

As the population ages, whichever company or organization that excels in supporting caregiving duties for their employees will become a winner in recruiting and keeping talents.

Photo Credit: Daily Mail

According to Statistics Canada, as many as 20 to 30 percent of people in the general population sleep poorly. They may have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, some awaken much too early, while others do not feel rested despite spending a full night seemingly asleep in bed. For one person in 10, insomnia is a chronic problem that repeats itself night after night. Nearly one-third of older people in Canada resort to sleeping pills.

Stats Can also found out that more than 50 percent of women aged 18 to 64 have trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep. Only 43 percent of men reported the same troubles. Among those who have no problems with sleeping, women slept about 15 minutes more than men.

Canadians are getting even less sleep than we were in 2005. Between 2007 and 2013, Canadians got an average of 7.12 hours of sleep – compared to 8.2 hours we got back in 2005.

The same situation happens to our neighbours down south. According to the website https://disturbmenot.co, between 50 and 70 million people in the U.S. suffer from chronic sleep disorder.  Approximately 35 percent of American adults get less than the recommended seven to eight hours of sleep per night. Like Canada, 10 percent of U.S. adults have chronic insomnia and approximately four percent of Americans used prescription sleeping pills in the previous month. According to the U.S. National Sleep Foundation, 44 percent of the elderly population experiences insomnia. The condition is more serious in this age group as it increases the risk of falls and can lead to cognitive decline.

There is a general misconception that older people need less sleep. The National Sleep Foundation says that people’s total sleep needs do not change much as they get older. Older people might go to bed and wake up earlier in the morning, but they also need an average of seven to eight hours of sleep while younger adults are advised to get seven to nine hours of sleep nightly.

More than half of adults over the age of 65 complain of having at least one sleep-related condition, including insomnia, sleep apnea, and restless leg syndrome. Health problems such as heart failure, arthritis, and Alzheimer’s can also steal sleep from older adults. Certain medications may also lead to sleepless nights. Even the change in retirement can throw off someone’s sleep schedule. Lack of sleep, both duration and quality, is often associated with obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, injuries, depression, irritability and reduced well-being, researchers said.

By now, the theory of how to get a better night’s sleep has been repeated so frequently that it’s like flogging a dead horse. Many sleep experts have already outlined tips for better sleep which include exercise and physical activity; keeping a routine; try not to eat right before bedtime; avoiding caffeine after 3 p.m.; limiting alcohol; avoiding bright lights and electronic devices; and maintaining a dark and cool bedroom environment.

Doctors often prescribe to patients sleeping pills which have a time-limited benefit and can sometimes cause more serious problems than they might prevent. According to The Globe and Mail, the Food and Drug Administration added a boxed warning in April to the prescription insomnia drugs zolpidem (Ambien, Edluar, Intermezzo and Zolpimist), zaleplon (Sonata) and eszopiclone (Lunesta) following reports of injury and death from sleepwalking, sleep-driving and engaging in other hazardous activities while not fully awake.

According to Dr. Adam P. Spira, a sleep researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, there are better, safer and more long-lasting alternatives than prescription drugs to treat this common problem. For the mature population, the alternatives are especially valuable since older people who metabolize drugs more slowly, are more likely to have treatable underlying causes of their insomnia and are more susceptible to adverse side effects of medications. Geriatric experts wrote that insomnia is typically undertreated, and nonpharmacologic interventions are underused by healthcare practitioners. When persistent insomnia is a problem, before your doctor writes a prescription for a sleeping pill, ask whether there are other remedies that may be safer, more effective and longer-lasting. If pain or other symptoms of a medical disorder are keeping you awake, the first step should be treatment of the underlying ailment to minimize its sleep-disturbing effects.

If persistent emotional problems are what keep you awake, consider consulting a psychologist, psychiatric social worker or psychiatrist before reaching for a sleeping pill. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT-I) is now considered the best treatment for insomnia, especially for older adults. It teaches people to challenge disruptive negative thinking and replace it with positive thoughts that counter arousal and induce relaxation. The American College of Physicians recommends cognitive behavioural therapy as “the first-line treatment for adults with chronic insomnia.” The therapy teaches effective strategies that continue to work long after the therapy ends.

Sleep experts on the https://disturbmenot.co website also recommend a few technologies which might help provide solutions to people suffering from chronic insomnia. Using a Good-Night Biological LED Bulb, originally designed for NASA astronauts, might help you fall asleep by eliminating some of the blue-sky light rays that disrupt sleep. Ebb Insomnia Therapy also gives the brain a gentle “push,” by only lowering a specific part of the brain’s temperature by half-a-degree centigrade. Using the Sleepio system, which identifies your core sleep issues and behavioural patterns, may help you create an optimized sleep routine to ensure each bedtime hour is a time for relaxation and rest.

Should all these technologies still fail to get you a better night’s sleep, you should consider mindfulness training at a wellness or yoga centre which will help you focus on deep breathing, relaxation techniques and meditation before going to bed.

A number of recent studies found that alcohol consumption across the world has increased, and by 2030, the amount of alcohol people drink will only go up. A new study published in medical journal The Lancet found that between 1990 and 2017, global alcohol consumption rates increased from 5.9 litres annually per person to 6.5 litres. What’s more, researchers predict that this number will jump to 7.6 litres by the year 2030. People are drinking more alcohol and the trend is expected to continue upward.

The study, conducted by researchers in Canada and Germany, also discovered that more people are drinking alcohol too. “The prevalence of current drinking increased from 45 percent in 1990 to 47 percent in 2017,” the researchers wrote. The amount of binge drinkers also increased to 20 percent in 2017 from 18.5 percent in 1990.

The percentage of people who abstain from alcohol decreased from 46 percent in 1990 to 43 percent in 2017. The researchers predict that these trends will continue, meaning that global goals for reducing alcohol intake are unlikely to happen. “We forecast…trends to continue, with abstinence decreasing to 40 percent by 2030… and the proportion of current drinkers increasing to 50 percent by 2030,” the researchers wrote.

The number of people who binge drink is also expected to increase, rising to an estimate of 23 percent in 2030.

The countries with the largest uptick in drinking are India and Vietnam, while booze consumption dropped in Australia, the U.K. and Canada.

According to The Washington Post, there are generational trends in alcohol consumption in the U.S., and one that’s been known for half a century is that baby boomers tend to like alcohol more than the “silent generation” that preceded them. Researchers see a steady rise in alcohol use and binge drinking – as well as what’s known as Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), an umbrella term for mild, moderate and severe abuse of alcohol – in the 65-plus demographic. Between 2005 and 2014, the percentage of older Americans who reported engaging in past-month binge drinking (defined as women consuming four or more drinks in about two hours, and men consuming five or more) increased from 12.5 percent to 14.9 percent, according to the U.S.National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The increase in drinking among older Americans is most pronounced among people with greater levels of education and income, and among women.

According to Daniel Blazer, a professor emeritus of psychiatry at Duke University, alcohol is typically available in communities and retirement homes as a social lubricant for the majority of residents who haven’t graduated to assisted living. “We know that if you drink the same amount of alcohol as you get older, you’re going to have increasing problems with side effects from that alcohol,” he said.

Excessive drinking contributes to 88,000 deaths and costs US$249 billion annually in the U.S., according to the head of the alcohol program at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He said binge drinking contributes to about half of those deaths and three-quarters of the economic costs. He urges people to follow the government’s dietary guidelines, which describe low-risk drinking as one drink daily for women and two for men.

Men traditionally have been much heavier users of alcohol, but the gender gap has virtually disappeared among young people. New data show girls are more likely to drink in 10th grade than boys, and college women are more likely to binge drink than college men. Visits to emergency rooms for alcohol-related problems have increased among older people and women.

Although Canada is not a hard-drinking country – Canadians drink less than Americans and most Europeans, and the country ranks below average among OECD countries for alcohol consumption – the direct healthcare costs pinned on alcohol use in Canada in 2014 were tallied at CDN$11.1 billion. According to The Globe and Mail, 80 percent of Canadians drink and about 20 percent are heavy users. Beer, wine and liquor are the lubricant at almost every social event.

A brand new study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) has revealed worrisome new trends. The study’s authors examined alcohol-related emergency room visits in Ontario from 2003 through 2016. The primary finding was that booze is sending more and more people to the hospital. Over 14 years, the rate of ER visits directly linked to alcohol abuse rose at 4.4 times the rate of overall visits.

Groups at the highest risk are men in their 50s, and people in the lowest-income quintile. The results also showed troubling increases for women and men in their 20s and 30s, particularly in the last five years of the study. One highlighted figure is the surge in emergency visits among women in their mid-to-late 20s – a 240 percent jump in 2016 compared with 2003. People would likely be surprised to learn that boozing has sent three percent of Ontarians to the emergency room.

According to the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, Canadians lack education around the harms of alcohol. Dr. Catherine Paradis, the lead alcohol expert at the Centre, said that alcohol literacy in our population is extremely low. “According to some data we have, no more than 20 percent of the population is aware that alcohol is associated to more than 200 chronic diseases, and that it can cause seven different types of cancer.”

Given the fact that 78 percent of Canadians in 2017 reported consuming an alcoholic beverage in the past year – and 21 percent of those drinkers were at risk for chronic effects – it’s important that people, particularly aging boomers, are aware of health repercussions.  Paradis says that if Canadians are going to consume alcohol, it’s best to follow the country’s low-risk drinking guidelines.

According to those guidelines, to reduce your risk of long-term effects, men should never take more than three drinks per occasion, and no more than 15 per week,” she said. “For women, it’s two per day and 10 per week. That means you need to have at least two days of abstinence a week, and you can’t have 10 drinks on a Saturday.” To reduce your risk of accident and injury, it is recommended that men should never have more than four drinks per occasion, and women should never exceed three drinks,” she said.

Recently, a new study from the University of Hong Kong has found that adults, especially women, who completely give up alcohol can experience better mental health and reach levels of well-being almost on a par with those of lifelong abstainers. The study’s results appear in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

So next time before you raise a glass, try to bear in mind all these scientific findings and exercise caution in including moderate drinking as part of a healthy diet.

Photo Credit: oncologynurseadvisor.com

The Federal Liberals may or may not win the October elections, but their recent policy on reducing drug costs for Canadians was a welcome move. Early this month, the Patented  Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) of Canada announced new drug-pricing regulations for new patented medicines that will take effect beginning next year. This move has raised worries among those with rare diseases, as well as their advocates. They are concerned that these changes will greatly disadvantage access of Canadian children and adults with rare and ultra-rare genetic disorders to new effective treatments. Under this policy, pharmaceutical companies, who see the new pricing system as likely reducing the costs of their drugs and therefore diminishing Canada’s already small market, may be less interested both in conducting expensive clinical trials as well as commercializing new treatments for the few patients who have rare diseases here. Some also believe that these pricing reforms will offset and compromise any new commitment proposed in the 2019 federal budget to increase funding for such diseases.

It’s therefore gratifying to read in The Globe and Mail that a group of clinician investigators and metabolic specialists caring for patients and their families with rare genetic disorders in Winnipeg, Ottawa and Vancouver, and who prescribe new approved drugs for these patients, said that these new regulations will not be as troubling as they fear. They explained that in order to conduct clinical trials, pharmaceutical companies must engage such patients and their physicians from all over the world, including Canada, as there are simply not enough patients with a particular rare disease in a single country to complete a trial.

The profit margins for pharmaceutical companies for drugs for rare diseases are currently close to double those for drugs for common diseases, so manufacturers are highly motivated to conduct the trials needed for drug licences and to involve as many patients as they can. This group of physicians are more concerned about the price of these drugs which have skyrocketed. Therefore, they welcome the Federal Government’s new rules on how prescription drugs are priced in Canada. While Canadian drugs prices are a bargain next to the U.S., they are currently much higher than the rest of the world. The new plan announced by the government will redesign the system for setting drug prices, aiming to move Canadian prices closer to the rest of the world.

What’s promised is a major remodel of the healthcare system’s structure which determines how much we pay for medicine. Prescription drugs administered outside of hospitals cost $33.7 billion last year, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. That makes drugs the second-largest item in the country’s healthcare envelope, ahead of physician billings. The following three-step reform from Ottawa is generally well perceived by most healthcare experts, critics and media:

1. The Patent Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) will get better tools to regulate the prices patent drug manufacturers can charge for new medications. The PMPRB currently reaches a fair price by considering prices in a basket of seven developed countries. Among them are Switzerland and the U.S., which have the world’s highest drug costs. As of July 1, 2020, the basket will no longer include those countries.
2. Drug manufacturers will have to provide Canadian regulators with the “real” price of their drug, net of hidden discounts or rebates. Drug pricing is an opaque business, featuring official prices that do no always reflect deals done with insurers, whether public or private. This lack of transparency makes regulation more difficult, and tends to result in higher costs.
3. The PMPRB will be able to consider a new drug’s value to patients, and whether its price reflects that.

All of this will be subject to nearly a year of consultation, but the basic ideas seem to be sound.The Federal Government is pitching this as laying the groundwork for national pharmacare which I’m sure will be a cornerstone of the Liberals’ election campaign. Medical experts say that Canada currently has two distinct drug-affordability problems. Both deserve to be election issues. First, too many Canadians (between one-in-20 and one-in-five) have insufficient or no drug insurance. When Canada created medicare back in the 1960s, it chose not to cover drugs. So when a Canadian goes to hospital for an operation, it doesn’t cost him/her anything. But as for the drugs they’ll take once back home, the cost may be partly covered, entirely covered or not covered by a hodgepodge of public and private insurance, depending on age, income, province and employer. This oversight should be rectified.

Second, Canadians – employers, employees and taxpayers – are paying too much for drugs. And that’s largely a function of how patent medicine prices are set, regulated and negotiated. That’s why the reform introduced to the PMPRB pricing policy and procedures will be key to laying the foundation for a national pharmacare plan.

For boomers and seniors, most drugs are already free once you’ve reached 65. However, the PMPRB pricing on rare diseases might still affect us. That’s why we should all be interested in how these reforms pan out.

Photo Credit: cnn.com

Ever since the outbreak of the Coronavirus also known as 2019-nCoV, there has been an increasing tide of xenophobia in Western countries around the world. According to The Guardian, Chinese people in Western countries where there have been cases of the Wuhan coronavirus have said they have been the target of racist abuse as paranoia mounts over the outbreak.

In Italy, the European country with the highest annual number of Chinese tourists, the confirmation of two confirmed cases – a couple who arrived in Milan from Wuhan on January 23 on a Lunar New Year holiday – coincided with incidents of xenophobia and calls to avoid Chinese restaurants and shops.

Roberto Giuliani, the director of the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, one of the oldest music institutes in the world, was criticized by colleagues on Wednesday after telling students from China, Japan and South Korea not to come to class until after a doctor had visited their homes to ensure they have not contracted the virus.

In France, a front-page headline in a regional newspaper warned of a “Yellow Alert.” One man told France TV he had been approached while buying vegetables in a supermarket in Strasbourg by a woman who demanded what nationality he was and “if I had the virus”. He added: “I wouldn’t say what happened was racist, but it was a strong prejudice.”

Sacha-Lin Jung, a representative of the Association of Chinese Residents in France, told BFMTV: “People are refusing to be served by Asian people in shops … a woman was thrown off a train because she was Asian and so it was obvious she was carrying the virus. This adds to the racism and stereotypes about the Chinese that already exist.”

The New York Times also reported that in Japan, the hashtag #ChineseDon’tComeToJapan has been trending on Twitter. In Singapore, tens of thousands of residents have signed a petition calling for the government to ban Chinese nationals from entering the country.

Fears over the Coronavirus have affected Chinese populations in Canada too. In the York region, a suburb of Toronto, parents demanded that a school district keep children of a family that had recently returned from China out of classes for 17 days. On Wednesday, John Tory, the mayor of Toronto, condemned racism against Chinese-Canadians, and there have also been reports of anti-Asian racism in the UK.

In France, Chinese residents have been sharing their experiences using the hashtag #JeNeSuisPasUnVirus (I am not a virus). One young woman calling herself Forky wrote on Twitter: “Not all Asians are Chinese. Not all Chinese were born in China and not all have been there. An Asian who coughs doesn’t have the Coronavirus. Insulting an Asian because of the virus is like insulting a Muslim because of the bombings.”

But herein lies the problem – for non-Chinese who are stoked by their fear of the spread of the virus, all Asians are to be avoided because most non-Chinese cannot tell the difference between the Chinese from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Seoul or mainland China. So, to make it simple and safe, according to some of the those who are ill-informed, the best “safe” measure is not to sit next to any Asians and avoid Asian eateries, retailers, groceries, spas and salons all together.

The worst of this paranoia, however, stems from the Chinese community itself from all around the world. In Hong Kong, where antagonism towards the mainland Chinese and distrust of the communist government in China are already at its zenith even before the virus hit, the 2019-nCoV further makes the situation worse. According to The New York Times, Kwong Wing Catering, a small restaurant chain in Hong Kong, announced in a Facebook post on Wednesday that it would serve only patrons speaking English or Cantonese, the city’s native language – a tongue distinct from the Mandarin spoken on the mainland. The business has been a vocal supporter of the Hong Kong democracy movement that has risen up in defiance of Beijing.

Here in Toronto, most Chinese restaurants, particularly in Markham where the population skews Chinese, have become ghost towns since the outbreak of the virus. In York Region condominium buildings where a lot of mainland Chinese call their homes in Canada, notices have been put up to ask all people who have travelled to China to self-quarantine for 14 days and to avoid all public areas such as the gym and swimming pool. Many Chinese New Year events and family gatherings have been cancelled.

Of course, the fake news and disinformation on social media did not help. For example, there was an audio of an Italian guy claiming that he is in Wuhan and that he knows of a secret laboratory where this virus was created. A much-viewed YouTube video in South Korea claims that a biochemical weapons facility in China leaked the Coronavirus in other corners of the globe. In Australia, a fake post circulating on Instagram warned that shops in Sydney containing items like fortune cookies, rice and “Chinese Red Bull” were contaminated. In China, there were rumours that the virus was actually planted by President Trump’s team to ensure China would not threaten the U.S.A.’s leadership position in the world.

My question remains: If we Chinese-Canadians ourselves are prejudiced against and avoiding the mainland Chinese, how can we expect empathy when xenophobia is happening to us? While it is true that not all Chinese were born in China and not all have been there, we Chinese-Canadians – whether from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines or from mainland China – should first exhibit appropriate behaviour towards one another. As Canadian and World Health Organization (WHO) public-health experts have advised, let’s be vigilant and not panic. Stay away from overly-crowded places and wash or sanitize your hands frequently. Avoid touching your face with your hands. Strengthen your own immune system instead of spreading unnecessary fear. Get your flu shot (it’s never too late) and go about your daily business as usual. If you’re feeling unwell and haven’t travelled to Wuhan, China, stay home and rest instead of going to work and spreading the virus around. Heed the Canadian government’s travel advisory and do not travel to China unless it is absolutely essential. More importantly, do not discriminate our fellow mainland Chinese, many of whom have shown to be exercising public-health self-discipline and voluntary self-isolation upon first discovery of their 2019-nCoV symptoms.

Witnessing what’s going on now in Toronto, the biggest city in Canada with the largest Chinese-Canadian population (631,050), is somewhat like watching the 2018 Netflix post-apocalyptic horror movie Bird Box, in which people start turning against one another in order to survive. The Coronavirus, although still evolving and is deadly,  will be under control in time like SARS. Calmness, common sense and compassion for one another should prevail over racial prejudice and unnecessary fearmongering. I am calling for all Chinese-Canadians to set a good example for others here in Canada and around the world.

Photo Credit: Harper’s Bazaar

As a cinephile, I have been observing the careers of boomer actors, particularly their accomplishments during awards seasons. Now that the latter is finally over, let’s zoom in on two renowned mature actors, Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas. I was never a fan of either star when they were younger, but the growth and maturity of both men as actors over the past decade have impressed me.

I remember seeing the long-anticipated Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood when it debuted last July and was blown away by Brad Pitt’s performance. The best actor always makes the audience forget that he/she is acting, and Pitt’s role as Cliff Booth, the stunt double and best friend of a fictional actor named Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, was the most natural I’ve recently seen on the big screen. We know very little about Booth in the movie except that he was a Vietnam War veteran, he lived in a trailer in LA, and he’s got an expressive pit bull as a pet. But we laughed at and with him when he was silly, stoned and drunk, and even though he was a bit of a loser and an alleged wife-killer, we empathized with him and cheered when he beat Bruce Lee in a casual fight scene and swooned when he took his shirt off on the roof repairing a TV antenna. I recall telling all my friends that Pitt absolutely stole the whole show and there he is now, having won his first-ever acting Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

In his Oscar acceptance speech, Pitt thanked Geena Davis for giving him his first break in Thelma and Louise in 1991, and since then his fame has risen incessantly albeit, for the longest time, Pitt could not shed his pretty-boy-only image. His good looks were actually in his way – he was underestimated as an actor over the years in spite of his best on-camera and behind-the-scene efforts, whether as a collaborator of world-renowned architect Frank Gehry in building 150 new homes in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit; or how his production firm Plan B supported so many successful films such as Eat Pray Love, The Big Short, 12 Years A Slave, and Moonlight.

As The New York Times so aptly wrote, “Beauty can be a trap as much as a benediction, including for men.” Other handsome Hollywood stars such as Paul Newman won his only Oscar after seven nominations. Robert Redford, who ironically picked Pitt to play in The River Runs Through It, has been nominated only once for acting and he lost.

The 56-year-old Pitt not only looked better than his 11-year-younger co-star DiCaprio in Once Upon A Time….in Hollywood, he also proved that after close to 30 years playing a range of roles including a soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, vampire, thief, psychopath and astronaut, he finally won his acting Oscar as what he has always been throughout his career – the coolest of all cats. As the actor ages, Pitt has also become more self-deprecating. His acceptance speech at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award topped it all with that kind of humour – he said that his role was “a big stretch: a guy who gets high, takes his shirt off and doesn’t get on with his wife.” For those who loved Once Upon A Time…in Hollywood like I did, you should know exactly what he meant.

The other boomer actor, who was nominated for an Oscar this year for the first time for his starring role in the Spanish film Pain and Glory, is another handsome actor Antonio Banderas. Although neither he nor the film won any Oscars, Banderas is another good example of a maturing actor who took on challenging roles as he ages and has proven himself to be more than a pretty face. Far from his Mask of Zorro days, the 59-year-old Banderas played a screenwriter and director who lived to make movies but had stopped working because he’s suffering from physical pain and pain of the soul in Pain and Glory. His character, whom Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar modelled on himself, suffered from insomnia, ulcers, reflux, tendinitis, depression and more.

I saw Banderas’s interview with Stephen Colbert just before the Academy Awards, and was touched by his awakening after his life-threatening heart attack two-and-a-half years ago. He said, “It’s one of the best things that ever happened in my life because it just gave me a perspective of who I was.” He also recounted how a nurse in the hospital told him that the heart not only pumps blood throughout your body; the heart is a warehouse for feelings and that you should expect to be sad for a few weeks or a few months following the heart attack and having stents put in. In describing his life after the cardiac arrest, Banderas said in a New York Times interview, “Since my heart attack, it’s almost like windows and doors started opening, and I started discovering other aspects of myself that I didn’t even know I had…I know that this may sound very stupid, but that cardiac event is probably one of the most beautiful things that happened in my life.” Almodovar has said that he cast Banderas in Pain and Glory because that heart attack lent the actor the ability to play pain in a very real, subtle way. I agree with the Times that it was Banderas’s most restrained performance he’s ever given which is also why it’s so natural, subtle and touching.

Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas both started their acting careers famous for their good looks, but have since then matured into accomplished roles and recognized for their acting skills in their advancing years. So, for you boomers out there who might be thinking that life’s setbacks – two divorces and multiple addictions in Pitt’s case; and a divorce and health crisis for Banderas – could cripple you, it’s time to look at these two boomer role models and start afresh.

Photo Credit: National Post

Once again, even during a global health crisis, millennials and boomers are at loggerheads blaming each other for not complying with the government’s stay-at-home directive.

According to The Globe and Mail, the pandemic has provided a new outlet for generational tensions. University students and other millennials have often disobeyed public-health officials and their parents by continuing to gather with friends in parks and condominium hallways. The Prime Minister, who has a huge following among young Canadians, have been employing a good-cop-bad-cop strategy in his daily address to the nation. Earlier this week, he was chastising like a parent, “Enough is enough! You think you’re invincible, but you’re not.” Today, Trudeau was praising young Canadians as being able to take up the challenge and exploring new boundaries around the world. But he concluded by urging young Canadians, as the future leaders of our society, to channel their energy during these difficult times to lead the fight against the virus by staying home and exploring the world virtually.

According to The Globe and Mail, the latest epidemiological data released by the Public Health Agency of Canada indicated that younger generations in the country are experiencing severe cases of COVID-19 that require hospitalization and in some cases ICU admittance. Thirty percent of hospitalized cases involve people under 40 years of age. Although most young patients might be able to recover eventually, there were also fatalities among the youngest population in Canada, China, Italy and the U.S.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also warned that young people are not immune from COVID-19 and must avoid socializing. “The choices made by the young can be the difference between life and death for someone else,” said WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

On the other hand, the older set, predominantly baby boomers, who are healthier and more active than their parents were at the same age, are equally defiant. They can take offence to what they see as infantilization from their children. But members of generations X, Y and Z worry that mantras such as “70 is the new 50” have given their parents a false sense of security.

Some boomers and seniors have refused to follow the social distancing rule. They thought their adult children were being paranoid. They had survived SARS, H1N1 and MERS – now, because of some new virus, they were supposed to halt all social activities and stay home?

The fatality risk for COVID-19 is often reported as two percent, but that’s for the overall population. According to Samir Sinha, the director of geriatrics at Toronto’s Sinai Health System and the University Health Network, “As soon as you start getting in your 60th, your 70th and your 80th-plus year, we start seeing those death rates go into the three-to-eight, and 15-percent range.”

The unflattering meme coined last year by millennials for boomers “OK, boomer” has now morphed into “not OK, boomer.” In fact, the news and social media have even been repeating the cruel meme “Boomer Remover.” That’s because people over 60 are at greater risk of becoming ill than younger folks who do not have underlying health conditions. COVID-19’s risk increases with age, making people in their 80s and 90s at the highest risk.  These facts have given some millennials and Gen Z a false sense of confidence that the virus is only a threat to baby boomers – hence the trending #BoomerRemover.

The Financial Times analyzed that this disrespectful meme may be mirroring the free-floating political anger that the current generation has for their elders. “This is a joking reaction to our frustration with boomers as a generation,” one young Twitter user wrote. “We’ve been told we’re too sensitive, dismissed on climate change, and constantly told we’re entitled.”

Fortunately, some millennials are using the “Boomer Remover” trend not out of insensitivity, but to get their parents to stay home. According to Business Insider, some millennials said they are concerned about their parents’ health and frustration in trying to convince them to stay inside. Another Tweeter user tweeted, “I had to tell my 70-year-old mum that they’re calling the pandemic the Boomer Remover before I could convince her to cancel all of her boomer-cluster activities.”

Whether you are millennials or boomers, ignoring the public-health directives and not staying at home will make you “COVIDiots” because you are endangering the lives of your family members and the population at large. Whatever differences we might have towards other generations, now is not the time to blame and mock one another. This is an unprecedented moment in history for all of us to be less self-absorbed and think about our roles in the wider world and society. We should take care of one another because each of our fates is tied to the fate of the whole.

Photo Credit: macleans.ca

When T.S. Eliot wrote “April is the cruellest month” in his famous poem The Waste Land in 1922, he certainly did not have COVID-19 in mind. Yet, his themes of disillusionment and despair could equally apply to our present social-distancing, home-quarantine situation in our collective fight against the virus.

Human beings are social animals – so asking us to self-isolate and not to interact with our friends and family are difficult challenges. Sounding like a broken record everyday in her news briefings, Toronto’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Eileen de Villa acknowledged that changing human behaviour is extremely challenging. But she and all other public health officials and politicians from our three levels of government have repeatedly said that social and physical distancing is the only way to flatten the COVID-19 curve. Elsewhere in countries that have experienced the worst outcome of this outbreak such as Italy, infectious disease experts have been echoing the same request. The Director for Infectious Department at Luigi Sacco University Hospital in Milan, the original epicentre for the outbreak in Italy, Dr. Massimo Galli, called social distancing “the mother of all battles.”

Nick Nanos, the chief data scientist at Nanos Research and the official pollster for The Globe and Mail, wrote that the virus has a grip on the Canadian mindset and is having a profound impact on mood. A recently released Globe and Mail/CTV News/Nanos survey suggests that anxiety about health and the economy are especially pressing. More than three out of four Canadians are worried, to one extent or another, that a family member will contract the virus, while more than six in 10 Canadians have anxiety about losing their job or paying their bills.

David Brooks of The New York Times painted an even grimmer picture. While many people are hanging in there, there is also a river of woe running through the world. Everybody is being affected but senior citizens are especially hard hit. For many, it’s the painful sense of missing their grandchildren and the precarity of living with a disease that could kill them at any time. For others, the combination of isolation and stress is having a compounded impact on their mental health.

To help alleviate the impact of self-isolation, here are a few suggestions on how to make the most of our “alone” time.

Set Goals Or Identify Projects

We know there are at least three months of self quarantine that we have to face. Why not establish some goals or identify certain projects that can be accomplished within the quarter? For me, the first project was compiling last year’s tax package documents and sending them over to my accountant to complete the filing of my 2019 tax return by the end of March. Even though Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has extended the tax filing deadline to June 1, it’s best not to procrastinate and try to file according to the old timeline.

Since we cannot go out to enjoy the Spring weather, try Spring-cleaning within the home. That includes cleaning out your closets, your study or home office, your kitchen and bathroom cabinets, and your basement. I know friends who have even embarked on a DIY home-renovation project.

Other worthwhile and time-consuming projects include digitizing your old photo albums, cleaning out or reducing your emails, and researching your telecommunications options for electronic devices and carriers. Whatever project you have been procrastinating in the last little while, that is probably what you can focus on now.

Establish A Daily Routine

My retiree friends have been telling me that it’s very challenging to figure out what day of the week it is during the quarantine because every day is the same and you have to take it one day at a time. So it’s very easy to lose the sense of purpose in life because there are no more appointments to keep and nobody to see outside your own home. I would recommend that we all establish a daily schedule that works best for us – when to go for that weekly grocery shopping trip; when to exercise indoors or take a walk outside while maintaining the physical distance of two metres (six feet) from other pedestrians; when to seek entertainment; and when to communicate with your family and friends.

Music Is The Best Therapy

During these challenging times, music is always the best therapy. It was the misquote of a line from the late 17th-century British poet William Congreve that evolved into the present-day saying –  “music soothes the savage beast.” When we are anxious and sad, lost and depressed, music has the soothing charms and the healing power. For me, music is as important as food at all times. During these three months when we have to be homebound, I usually put on music that makes me happy – Solomon Burke, Sam Cooke, The Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams or anything Motown. Rock’n Roll or R&B during the day and jazz in the evening. For others, it might be classical or country music. It’s almost impossible to find someone who does not feel a strong connection to music. Even if you can’t carry a tune or play an instrument, you can probably come up with a list of songs that evoke happy memories and raise your spirits. Now is the time to play your favourite music.

Relieve Stress with Daily Exercise

If we just let ourselves go during this pandemic and become couch potatoes, then our invisible enemy would truly claim a full victory. Instead, strengthen your immune system by figuring out what daily exercise would keep you physically and mentally fit. Pick the right exercise for you from the numerous YouTube videos on fitness while you’re under quarantine at home. Different strokes for different folks but the important thing to remember here is what will keep you moving consistently. What works for me is the Toronto Raptor Serge Ibaka workout – jogging around my condo apartment until I perspire. Coupled with some regular weight-lifting and a walk outside for at least 45 minutes, I feel pretty good most of the time.

Escape With Good Books

During these trying times, books are the everlasting friend that will take our minds off the pandemic in addition to the usual benefits of reading: increasing our knowledge, improving our vocabulary and strengthening our memory. So look for a good book that helps with mental stimulation, stress reduction, and escape from the negative news on the virus that bombards us all day. Maybe even find a book that would provide comic relief. I am reading Woody Allen’s new memoir Apropos of Nothing on my Kindle and at about 20 percent through it now, I’ve already laughed a lot.

Reach Out and Connect

This is a time to practise aggressive friendship with one another – to be the one who seeks out the lonely and the troubled. Even if they are not in despair, this is the time to reflect who are important to your life and reach out to them to express love and affection.

Instead of texting and emailing, pick up the phone and talk to those whom you haven’t communicated in a long time and tell them you care about them and are checking in with them to make sure they are all right.

According to The New York Times, phone calls have made a comeback in the pandemic. While the biggest telecommunications providers in the U.S. prepared for a huge shift toward more internet use from home, what they didn’t expect was an even bigger surge in plain old voice calls, a medium that had been going out of fashion for years. AT&T said that the number of cellular calls had risen 35 percent and that Wi-Fi-based calls had nearly doubled from averages in normal times. In contrast, internet traffic is up around 20 percent to 25 percent from typical daily patterns, AT&T and Verizon said. Perhaps the move to staying at home has reignited people’s hunger to stay connected, voice to voice.

Finally let’s keep thinking positive. I’m sure we can come out of this crisis with a renewed sense of perspective and a new sense of our dependence on each other. Instead of complaining, we should be grateful that we are lucky to be at home with our privacy, to have technology, to be safe, to have food. All these months of social isolation will make us anticipate the good things we will not take for granted when things go back to normal – hopefully soon!

In spite of the ongoing feud between the boomer and millennial generations, we need to admit that a few industries, which have hitherto been staunchly supported by boomers throughout the years, need to appeal to millennials if they want to survive.

The wine industry has always been a business relying on sophisticated boomers until recently when the mature population’s consumption of wines has been slowing down due to health concerns of an aging population. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Napa Valley, the capital of wine tourism in California, has a millennial problem. The kids might be all grown up (the youngest millennial will be 23 by the end of this year) but they are not drinking wine the way their parents did.

Today, the millennials only make up 17 percent of the fine-wine market, according to the Silicon Valley Bank’s influential annual wine industry report. This number has not changed for years. While young wine drinkers may splurge on the occasional US$50 bottle, US$8 to US$12 remains their sweet spot, said Rob McMillan, author of the bank’s 2019 report. “The issue of greatest concern for the wine business today is the millennial generation’s lack of participation in the premium wine category,” the report warns.

Unlike baby boomers in their heyday, millennial consumers today have access to a broader selection of fine beverages. In the 1980s, Napa competed with high-end wines from France and Sonoma; today it competes with craft IPAs, traditional beers, mezcal, legal pot and hard seltzer. The big issue is the transition from the baby boomers to a totally different consumer with different values.The biggest mistake, according to McMillan, is for wineries to build a new tasting room that is your parents’ tasting room – you walk in and it’s all grey-haired people. Industry experts are now trying to create a different experience for younger people which may need to include the outdoors and some food-and-wine pairings as well. Similar to many other businesses, the wine industry is looking into using big data and social media to help create winery experiences that younger consumers want.

Some people think the problem lies with the wineries’ access and diversity. Millennials care about the environment, farm-to-table and connection. With money tight, they might want to support families, people they know, and wineries where they have tasted with the winemaker or owner. According to Wine Magazine, personal touch means everything to thirsty millennials who want to taste and learn more about wines. Michelle Lipa, who helps smaller Napa Valley producers and restaurants with brand strategy and public relations, believes that not all is lost with millennials. “It’s just going to take longer for most to come to Napa because of all the financial strife, sine 9/11 to the pandemic,” she said.

The performing arts industries have also been traditionally supported by mature audiences. But if they don’t appeal to younger patrons, their future will be dismal. Let’s focus only on the ballet industry today. One of the toughest moments in the world of ballet is watching a life-changing performance and then looking around to see that only half the seats were filled to witness it. The discussions about how ballet can stay relevant and build new audiences have been going on for decades. But perhaps the debates should be focusing on the sales and marketing rather than the relevance of the product.

According to DANCE magazine, a few US ballet companies have done exactly that, leading to full houses on week nights and proving that revenue growth is possible. To many millennials, ballet can be intimidating. According to Julie Loignon, director of audience engagement at Ballet Austin, the purpose of marketing used to be awareness. But now, the ballet company has to let people feel like they understand what they are seeing after they have invested in a ticket.

One way to do this is by getting rid of jargons such as “mixed rep” or “triple bill” and replacing them with words that are more universally understood, like “three one-act ballets.” Another is to communicate the “story” or meaning behind abstract work through content-focused marketing – that is, producing fun, educational behind-the-scene videos, images and articles in-house. Ballet Austin films a professional trailer for each ballet and projects it in the theatre lobby, so that their audience can preview coming attractions. Mobile-friendly ticket-buying sales also allow people to buy in the moment they feel inspired.

To target millennials and create the feeling of a big event, Ballet Austin also designs a fun lighting treatment for the facade of the theatre and hires a DJ to play popular music outside. It also creates social media stations in the theatre, designated spaces with a backdrop and themed props for people to take photos. The marketing team uses a “social media aggregator” to choose posts with the ballet’s hashtag to project onto screens. This encourages word-of-mouth advertising because millennial audiences love looking for their photos. After each show, Ballet Austin sends patrons out the door with treats themed to the show, like candy canes for Nutcracker with a small promotional card for the next show attached. According to Ballet Austin, ballet companies only have three or four opportunities a year to interact with customers and they have to make the most out of them.

Last but not least, millennials have changed our shopping habits and social media have killed the retail store. Mall mainstays like Victoria’s Secret and J.Crew have all declared bankruptcies during the pandemic while brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch and the Gap have pulled back.

According to Marsha Cohen, chief retail analyst at market research firm The NDP Group, Amazon has changed how retailers sell. The combination of fast and free delivery, giving third parties a platform to reach consumers directly and building their own stable of brands have created a major challenge.

But Amazon is only part of the culprit. There is a shift in spending more than necessary and some consumers are not spending at all. Cohen said that entertainment has become a big part of the spending power consumers have. Fashion apparel becomes less of a priority. According to NBC News, the influence of minimalism, best illustrated by the popularity of Marie Kondo and her message of eliminating clutter, plays a role, as does the persistent trend of activewear and athleisure apparel.

The popularity of sites like Rent the Runway offers another window into how North Americans, especially younger people, view fashion as something to be experienced rather than stockpiled. Urban Outfitters also announced last year that it is launching a clothing rental service that allows shoppers to borrow up to six items a month for US$88. Owning stuff and having stuff is not a priority of a younger demographic. In Canada also, there are at least nine fashion rental companies that are capitalizing on this trend, according to Style Democracy. They include Atelier Privé in Montreal; Rent Frock Repeat, The Fitzroy, and KukaMelon in Toronto; and Flauntbox in Coquitlam, BC.

Many apparel brands are still thriving because they are strong with social media marketing – engaging directly with consumers and selling products couched in the imagery and verbiage of experiences. Cohen said the influence in fashion has changed to social media’s ability to be able to share. People are gravitating toward friends or self-styled influencers rather than the traditional gatekeepers of fashion like designers or department stores.

Since the pandemic, it has become even tougher to sell to millennials. CNBC cited a recent survey by First Insight that found 54 percent of millennials in the US saying the new coronavirus has already significantly or somewhat  impacted their purchase decisions. That is compared with 33 percent of baby boomers, 42 percent of Gen X, and 49 percent of Gen Z. The survey found that millennials are changing their spending habits and preparing to shop differently more than any other age group in order to cope. The harsh economic realty of millennials keeping their employment or getting new jobs will make it increasingly challenging for marketers to carve a share of their wallets.