LTC Long-Term Care Planning Canada Inc.
Patty Randall is on a one-woman long-term
care campaign in Canada. She is out to educate Canadian
boomers and young-seniors
on the urgent need to plan for their
care-years...while there is still time.
Patty is an “edu-taining” national speaker
and author on caregiving; the costs of care for families;
government programs offered by provinces and territories; the
current aging trends in our country affecting lifestyle-retirement
plans; and the everyday changes we all have to face to accommodate
living longer. Her message, “Plan Now…No Surprises…Please!”
Patty, an only child, chronicled her decade-long care-journey
with both her parents, as she gave up her international
and national work as a community development specialist, went
through scores of caregivers, cried rivers of tears, navigated
our health system, agonized over various physical and mental health
conditions, faced unexpected crises, and constantly scrambled
to pay monthly care-related costs. She tells all in her community
seminars and offers recommendations in her guidebook, the first-of-its-kind
in Canada, for Canadians, by a Canadian.
Patty’s speeches
are delivered in a forceful manner; she brings passion and humor
to this issue in order to make a tough topic motivational. Her
lively seminars highlight potential dilemmas, dispel any myths
and offer recommendations to help boomers and seniors plan for
the mysteries and problems associated with their own and their
loved ones’ inevitable care needs. She discusses challenges
such as: how to hire live-in and part-time caregivers; what home
care and support services our government programs provide; how
one may approach hospitals, doctors, specialists in order to get
answers and gain support; how to follow medications and understand
potential side-effects; why respite is necessary; what happens
during a couple’s ‘forced separation’, when
one must move into a care home and one is able to stay at home;
what aspects are subsidized; who really pays for our care needs;
and what does long-term care actually cost a family in our country.
Patty’s in-depth guidebook, “Let’s
Talk, The Care-Years…Taking Care Of Our Parents/Planning
For Ourselves”, is a combination non-fiction and how-to
manual that offers step-by-step suggestions on many care-topics
as she tracked her family’s successes and failures and frustrations
over the years. In addition, the guidebook (revised and up-dated
in February 2006) includes: health facts of interest, contacts
for free resource materials, useful federal and provincial and
territorial websites. It invites everyone to investigate solutions
available for their families.
She points out supportive research--that for
the first time in history, Canadian adults have more parents than
children; that a new trend in our country is parents and children
as seniors in retirement at the very same time; that eldercare
and the workplace is a silent, growing problem costing Canadian
companies an estimated $16 billion annually; that LTC is an issue
that will touch one in three Canadian families…. She emphasizes
that care-years are rarely short-term events, that 28% of caregiving
lasts 3-5 years, with 22% 6-10 years and a further 22% lasting
greater than 10 years making caregiving a career we never planned
for ourselves. She implores us to read between the lines and ask
ourselves questions when she quotes research stating that in 2010,
60% of those over the age 50 will have a surviving parent (vs.
only 16% in 1960); that Canadian seniors currently make up 12.7%
of our population yet account for 44% of our health costs. She
stresses that most care required is not of a formal nursing type
care but the ordinary everyday activity type, that greater than
77% of caregiving is done by family members. Provincial governments,
large companies, care-related industries and national media, she
believes, ought to recognize a win-win situation and assume leadership
roles in educating Canadians.
She offers a four- step LTC formula to Canadians:
- Make ‘care’ an acceptable four-letter
word in your family
(Translation: develop an awareness of what is involved organizationally,
emotionally and financially, in long-term care as the lifestyle
risks to our selves and our loved ones are great)
- Make ‘care’ a component in both your
current lifestyle and your future retirement plans
(Translation: understand that ‘care’ can
happen at any age, that most care takes place in our own homes,
that each of us is responsible for paying for our own care and
our loved one’s care needs and that the costs of that
care to a family can be shocking even with our provincial governments
offering some services and subsidizations)
- Make ‘care’ a workable process in your
busy life
(Translation: realize that everyday life doesn’t stop
when a care-journey begins, regular and new demands roll right
along at the same time we are attempting to balance roller coaster
caregiving experiences--Patty encountered divorce, career changes
and remarriage during this same period)
- Make a ‘care-plan’ for yourself--now
(Translation: recognize the importance of planning when it comes
to this issue, that we have to plan well-in-advance for our
own care stage of life to ensure our independence, quality of
care, safety—remember: caregiver today, care-receiver
tomorrow).
In a nutshell, she says, “Long-term care
can be rewarding for both caregivers and care-receivers but it
is time for millions of Canadian boomers and seniors who are often
in denial about growing older to become aware of the challenges
associated and plan for this stage of life, before care-crises
create a tsunami in their lives.”

As an Individual,
Start Your Planning Here!
Complete
a Family Document Care-Years Planner
Are your documents in order for yourself and your family’s
use? Free to download - start here. Obtain a Guidebook
Are you interested in obtaining a guidebook on the issue,
"Let's Talk--The Care-Years...Taking Care Of Our Parents
/ Planning For Ourselves"...first of its kind, written
by a Canadian, for Canadians, to prepare for parent care
or your own care. We don't need any surprises when we have
already entered our LTC stage of life. Click here.
Begin to understand the Long-Term
Care Issue in our Country!
Are you interested in learning about the long-term care
issue in our country, and the government care programs in
your province? Click here.
Attend a Community Seminar
Are you interested in attending or hosting a community education
seminar on the issue of long-term care in your province? Click
here.
Learn about Long-Term Care Insurance
Are you interested in becoming familiar with a fairly new
product in Canada that will assist you financially with
your long-term care costs? To learn about long-term care
insurance, click here.
If you or a family member needs
direction, you may want to contact Patty for such a service
Click here for contact information.
As a Company, Start Your Planning
Here!
Sponsor a Client Seminar
Series
Is your company interested in sponsoring a client seminar
series? Click here.
Host a Training Seminar
Is your company interested in a training seminar for your
agents or your networks of influence? Click here.
Host an Employee Awareness Seminar
Is your company interested in hosting a lunch-and-learn
employee awareness seminar on the issue? Click here.
Organize a Keynote Speaker
Do you need a keynote speaker for your association or a
conference in your area, addressing the issue of long-term
care in Canada? Click here.
Organize a Human Resources Association
Presentation
Is your Human Resource Association interested in hosting
a keynote presentation on the impact of eldercare on the
workplace and ways to respond effectively? Click here.
Organize a Media Event for education,
marketing or good-will purposes
If you a host radio show such as an open-line or guest interview
show; in you want to write an article on the issue or undertake
an interview for your local newspaper; if you host a television
talk show or round-table discussion with community persons
contact Patty. Click here.
If involved in the long-term
care issue or long-term care insurance sales, start your
planning now!
Become a Member--If you are an insurance agent, a long-term
care specialist, or if you and your company is involved
in the long-term care issue in any manner, these on-going
member services will be of interest to you. Click here. |
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‘ Care and Taxes ’

To find out about claim credits and benefits on your income tax return
Click Here |
Making Medicare...
the History of Health Care in Canada, 1914 to 2007
From the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Click Here |

Retirement Calculator Canada
Take a few moments and work through this calculator developed by the Government of Canada.. the exercise will give you a very good idea of what your retirement income will be.
Click Here
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Long Term Care Insurance

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To read media articles by Patty Randall
click here |

Need to get your documents in order, use this outline to complete a personal
care-planner
Click Here |
For up-to-date information on caring for parents in Canada
Click Here
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Interested in an
animated population pyramid illustrating our population's
changing age structure?
Click here to view a Stats Canada presentation. |
KEEP UP-TO-DATE ON THE ISSUE OF SENIOR CARE
A 2008 study from Statistics Canada---“Elder Care—What We Need To Know” ... to read the findings and see the informative graphs of this study click here |
"Extended health care services are not and never were insured health services under the CHA"
Source: Canada Health Act
For more information, click here |
To contact Patty directly, email her at pattyr@telus.net
(all website links revised, January 2009)

First of its kind in
Canada, Written by a Canadian, For Canadians
Based on one family's personal journey
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“... I am already convinced
that your book should be mandatory reading for every
adult in Canada and CERTAINLY everyone in any position
in our Health System and our Federal and Provincial
Governments”
- Tim Landry, MSA Financial |
I know this care issue isn’t
sexy or trendy, it doesn’t deal with the environment,
sports, fashion or the economy; it isn’t about marriage,
child-rearing, politics, exotic travel or fulfilling one’s
dreams, and, it sure doesn’t generate that, “Boy
I can’t wait to read this topic feeling" - but
I guarantee, that when the time comes, this very issue will
have such an astonishing and profound impact on your life
that you will ask yourself (as I did) what planet you’ve
been living on – why you haven’t addressed this
period of your life before now.
- Excerpt from the introduction to
Patty Randall’s extensive guidebook, “Let’s
Talk The Care-Years…Taking Care Of Our Parents/Planning
For Ourselves
For more information, click here
to go the guidebook contents
page. |
Adopt-A-Gran Program...a program Canadians should be proud of...if interested in more information, click here: www.helptheaged.ca
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*Independence - suveyed as top priority by Canadian seniors.
Long-Term Care
and It's Impact on My Family - Do I Need To Plan Now?
Let's talk the new facts of life, click here
to view this article from my articles
of interest. |
Though no one can go back and
make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand
new ending
All of the pictures and graphics
on this web site are from Patty's presentations and speeches. |
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