Why Adding More Care Hours Won’t Fix the System
- Fraser Edward
- May 12
- 3 min read
When conversations around healthcare and aging at home come up, the solution often sounds straightforward.
Add more care hours.
More visits. More staff. More support in the home.
And while additional care can absolutely help families, it does not fully address the challenge the system is facing today.
Because the issue is no longer just about the amount of care being delivered.
It is about the growing complexity surrounding it.
Across Canada, home and community care systems are under increasing pressure. More people are aging at home, our hospitals are strained, and providers are being asked to support increasingly complex needs outside of traditional clinical settings.
At the same time, the demand on families continues to grow. In 2022, 42% of Canadians aged 15 and older reported providing unpaid care to either children or adults with long-term conditions or disabilities. Nearly 1.8 million Canadians were considered “sandwich caregivers,” balancing support for both children and aging adults at the same time.
The reality is that there are practical limits to how much the current model can scale.
Even with additional funding and integrated care initiatives, the system cannot realistically provide continuous in-person support for every family that needs it.
And for many families, privately paying for additional hours of care is simply not affordable.
That is why the conversation needs to shift.
More care hours alone will not solve a problem that is increasingly about continuity, visibility, and coordination.
Most care is still delivered in person. A provider visits, care is delivered, and the visit ends. But life continues throughout the day, and that is often where families feel the greatest uncertainty.
Did they eat today, what about their medications?
Did they have a fall when no one was around?
Are they agitated or has their condition changed and no one has noticed?
These are the questions that stay with caregivers long after a home care visit is over.
And that pressure is not just emotional. It increasingly impacts work, financial stability, and day-to-day life. Statistics Canada found that two-thirds of working sandwich caregivers said their caregiving responsibilities affected their employment or job-seeking activities.
Integrated care and hospital-to-home models are helping move the system in the right direction. There is more emphasis now on coordination, virtual care, accountability, and supporting people across transitions between hospital and home.
But even these models still rely heavily on episodic touch points.
And families continue to carry much of the responsibility in-between.
What many caregivers are looking for is not necessarily more services. But rather more confidence. More awareness. More reassurance that things are okay when no one is physically there.
This is where the role of technology becomes important, but only if it is designed in a way that genuinely supports both families and providers.
Too often, healthcare technology adds more complexity instead of reducing it. Multiple apps, logins, dashboards, and troubleshooting requirements create friction, especially for older adults and already overwhelmed caregivers.
The most effective solutions are often the simplest ones.
The ones that fit naturally into daily life, support communication, and strengthen the connection between providers, families, and the person receiving care.
The future of aging at home will require more than expanding the current model.
It will require a stronger bridge between formal care and family caregiving. One that helps families feel informed and connected without increasing strain on the healthcare system itself.
Because the goal is not just to deliver more care.
It is to help people feel supported in-between the moments care is being delivered.
Learn how Paige Frame supports connection and peace of mind in-between visits.
About the Author:
Fraser Edward:
Fraser is a healthcare and technology executive with 25+ years of experience spanning integrated healthcare systems, home care, digital innovation, and hospital governance. At St. Joseph’s Health System, he co-founded the Centre for Integrated Care and led cross-system initiatives, including EPIC Virtual Care and ED-LTC project AMPLIFY. Previously, Fraser held marketing and business development roles at Loblaws (SDM), TELUS Health, Hewlett Packard, Research In Motion (BlackBerry), & various HealthTech start-ups.
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