Pat Armstrong, professor of sociology in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and an executive member of both the York Institute for Health Research and the Graduate Program in Health Policy & Equity, recently received $2.5 million from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada to lead a study to identify promising practices for understanding and organizing long-term residential healthcare.

The Ottawa Sun published a story March 30 about the project that featured Carleton Professor Hugh Armstrong who is part of the project's research team.

How does bringing your own kitchen table to your nursing home room help your incontinence?

Does having a stove in your room — even if the electrics aren’t hooked up — improve your dementia?

A Carleton University researcher will look at the success of some countries — including Sweden’s private rooms with key touches of home — in making long-term care homes livable.

The less-sterling models of elder care will also fall under the scope of a new $2.5 million research project which will include six countries and span seven years.

The project, which is led by York University, will explore how elder care is delivered, organized and financed in Canada, the U.S. and four other Western countries.

“There’s a general perception of a nursing home as an expression of failure,” said Hugh Armstrong, professor of social work at Carleton University and a member of the research team funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

With an aging population of baby boomers poised to hit their senior years, Canada’s state of nursing home care is stuck in what Armstrong calls a “cheap, low-end hospital” model, riddled with resentment, uncertainty and guilt from both residents and their families.

“We want those settings to be decent and good,” said Armstrong.

The complete article is available on The Ottawa Sun's Web site.

Armstrong also received congratulations from the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation for securing the grant.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.