1.0 INTRODUCTION

In June 1997, the Review of Veterans' Care Needs produced a Literature Review entitled Care Trends for Seniors. That paper described general care trends for seniors based mainly on a review of articles published between 1985 and 1996, with the vast majority falling in the 1993 to 1996 range.

In light of its current focus on projecting the demand for long term care and developing options for meeting that demand, and given the ever-increasing senior population in Canada and the various cutbacks in the health care field prompting ongoing change, the Review deemed it appropriate to re-visit current literature on aging and health. Specifically, this paper will present readers with a brief overview of some of the very recent trends in long term care in Canada. It is not meant to cover all topics in long term care, but simply to present readers with a glimpse of some of current issues and trends.

The October 15, 1997, edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal is dedicated to the subject of aging and contains various articles of interest. Another good source of information on Canada's aging population, its needs and how those needs are likely to be met is Growing Old in Canada, the first of eight monographs being produced by Statistics Canada. The monographs are part of the 1991 Census Analytic Program, the first formal monographic program associated with the Census since 1971 (Moore, Rosenberg & McGuinness, 1997). A complete list of references can be found at the end of this paper.