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Ottawa Citizen

‘We don't want to be warehoused': Advocates push for community-based future of aging in Ottawa

A Monday Tai Chi course, then a Tuesday morning river walk. Thursdays mean more exercise classes or a fresh fruit and vegetable market. Fridays are for book discussions and coffee hours. Every so often, there will be a resilience workshop, a fajita cooking class or a hula dancing session taught by a 93-year-old woman. Article content Article content Seventy-nine-year-old Sharon Moon has events to attend like this almost every day of the week. The best part? They're all hosted inside her condo building, Ambleside 1, where she has lived with her 81-year-old husband, Howard Clark, for the past seven years. Article content Article content The Ambleside buildings in the north-west Ottawa community of Woodpark are not seniors' homes or long-term care homes. They're regular condominiums, though more than half of the residents are above the age of 65. Article content Article content In Ottawa, around 170 residential buildings and several neighbourhoods can be identified as NORCs, according to a report brought to City Council last month. This number is only expected to increase, as seniors are Ottawa's fastest-growing age group and are expected to account for a fifth of all adults in the city by 2030, according to the 2021 census. Article content These communities present an opportunity to invest in community-based programming and reshape the future of aging-in-place in Ottawa, according to advocates and residents like Moon. Article content Almost every senior she knows wants to age in their own home, she said. Article content Article content Article content 'We don't want to be warehoused,' Moon said. 'Bringing services to people where they are is part of creating a healthier community.' Article content Article content Moon and other Ambleside residents started exploring options for seniors who want to age in place after being 'devastated' by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on seniors in long-term care homes. Eventually, the community connected with the Council on Aging and the Oasis support program out of Queen's University, and got the opportunity to have a paid program coordinator in their building who organizes health, wellness and social activities that residents ask for. Article content 'It's resident-driven, it's not top-down at all,' Moon said. 'It's been just an absolutely amazing experience.' Article content Implementing programming within existing communities populated by seniors is a better model of care for people wanting to age at home, according to Jennifer Brooks, a volunteer with the Council on Aging of Ottawa. Article content 'Ninety-six per cent of people want to age at home, and it's very difficult to do that in your 90s without some kind of support,' she said. 'The whole intention is really to identify where older people live so that we can bring services and supports to them.'