Manitoba's quiet elder care crisis
Manitoba's population is aging faster than our systems are adapting. According to the 2024 National Institute on Ageing Survey, nearly one in three older Manitobans did not receive the home or community-based care they needed in the past year.
Loneliness is rising. Retirement confidence is falling. And still, we speak of independence as if it is a given.
We say we want Manitobans to age at home. But what if home is a walk-up apartment with no elevator? Or a hotel room after yet another evacuation? Or a place where home-care visits are promised, but arrive weeks late? In this province, aging in place has become a policy aspiration we repeat, without the systems to back it up.
Too often, elder care is framed around the idea of staying put. But aging in place is just one part of a much broader care puzzle. It includes long-term care, caregiver respite, mental health supports, culturally grounded services, and dignified end-of-life care. When we treat it like a catch-all solution, we stop asking deeper questions. What kind of place? And with what support?
For many older Manitobans, aging in place is not a choice. It is simply what is left. Long-term care is too expensive. Assisted living is out of reach. Others are left behind due to language barriers, cultural gaps, or geography. The systems that are supposed to support aging in place rarely speak to each other. And too often, they do not speak to older adults themselves.
The NIA survey found that nearly 40 per cent of older adults in Manitoba expressed low retirement confidence and concerns about material deprivation. Some are too proud to ask for help. Others do not know where to turn. Many are aging in isolation, while those who care for them—whether unpaid family members or overstretched professionals — are burning out.
What we are witnessing is not just a service gap. It is a quiet crisis. Not one of spectacle, but one of neglect. Not intentional, but structural. Not loud, but deeply human.
And still, this is not inevitable.
Some solutions are already in motion like hospital-to-home transitions, community-run wellness checks, and home support programs. But they remain fragmented, often too small to meet the scale of need. Without stable funding and cross-system co-ordination, these promising ideas struggle to take root.
Manitoba is not starting from scratch. What is missing is not innovation. It is follow-through.
Promising elder care pilots exist across the province. But too often they remain underfunded, disconnected, and temporary. In a system this strained, good intentions are not enough.
We owe it to older Manitobans to turn aging in place from a hopeful phrase into a lived reality. That means investing not only in beds or budgets, but in people, relationships, and care that is rooted in dignity.
Aging in place should not mean aging in silence.
It should mean aging with choice, connection, and community.
Marwa Suraj is a naturalized Canadian, a proud Manitoban, and a physician by training. She is Black, Muslim, and a woman: identities that shape her passion for equity, innovation, and social accountability.
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