This area focuses on the development of data on senior housing, including long-term care facilities, assisted living, innovative community-based supportive housing, and affordable and accessible housing.

As underlined in the National Housing Strategy, there is a considerable gap in the development and collection of housing data in Canada. Without a clear picture of what senior housing alternatives are available, what services they offer, where they are located and who are using or running them, it is impossible to develop coherent and responsive senior housing policy.

This second area focuses on the development of data on important community support policies, programs, and practices known to foster age-friendly environments and to promote the health and participation of older adults living in the community.

It includes data on transportation and mobility, health promotion, leisure and recreation, civic engagement and food security. Most of these essential programs and services for healthy aging are supported by the third economy sector (not-for-profit organizations, volunteer sector and charities).

However, regional data regarding their availability, effectiveness, or cost is scarce or non-existent.

This third area focuses on the development of data on home care and support policies and programs, including service access and delivery mechanisms, workforce distribution, resource allocation and management and the role of caregivers in the province.

Home care and support services are key to healthy aging, but data is not always available and when it is, it often provides a partial understanding of the reality faced by older adults aging at home.

Intersectionality-based policy analysis considers how diverse groups – and often marginalized groups – experience policies and programs. Sex, gender, and other identity factors such as ethnicity, religion, and/or disability can greatly impact access to program and services.

This type of analysis will ensure that the healthy aging community profiles capture the diverse experience of older adults across the region.

Language often shapes many socio-economic aspects of older adults’ lives, including access to health services and programs. Official language minority communities (OLMC) are Canadian communities living their everyday lives in one of the official languages but where the majority of the population uses the other language.

This is the case of francophones living in Saint John, Fredericton, and Miramichi in New Brunswick and of anglophones living in Montréal, Québec. OLMCs help understand the impact and effectiveness of healthy aging policies among older adults living in language minority context.

Naturally occurring retirement communities (NORC) are geographically delimited areas where a high concentration of older adults is found. They emerge over time, but they are not specifically designed to attract older adults.

NORCs have shown great potential for program intervention and service delivery and could become a powerful unit of analysis to understand the impact of geography on healthy aging policies.