Editorial: Dementia care money for Union Villa is welcome. Now show the results

Anyone who has visited a parent or grandparent with dementia in long-term care knows that good care is about more than medication schedules. It is about whether a familiar face greets them, whether a hallway feels like home or like a hospital, and whether staff have the time and training to calm distress instead of simply managing it.

So it is good news that Union Villa in Unionville was named this week as one of 17 homes in the first year of Ontario's Improving Dementia Care Program. The province is spending $9 million over three years to help homes adopt care models built around residents' emotions and relationships, and to train staff to use them. Union Villa will work with BSO 5STaR, a Behavioural Supports Ontario model that focuses on staff skills and calm, familiar spaces.

The scale of the need

The numbers explain why this matters. The province says more than 60 per cent of long-term care residents in Ontario have a dementia diagnosis, and it expects the number of Ontarians with dementia to triple by 2050. Seventeen homes is a start. Nearly 50 by 2027-28, the government's target, is better, but it will still leave most homes and most residents waiting.

Markham's need will only grow. The Mon Sheong Foundation announced this month that the province has awarded it licences for a new 256-bed long-term care home in the city. Homes like that should be built and staffed with dementia care in mind from day one, not retrofitted years later.

There is also a gap closer to home. The same announcement added up to 153 beds in behavioural specialized units, which care for residents with the most complex needs. None of those beds is in York Region.

What to ask for

Three things would make this money go further. First, the province should publish what it learns from the first 17 homes, including measures that families understand, such as use of antipsychotic drugs, falls and hospital transfers. Second, it should set out how homes are chosen for later rounds so that operators in fast-growing places like Markham know how to qualify. Third, it should say when York Region can expect specialized behavioural beds of its own.

Union Villa's staff and residents now have a chance to show what better dementia care looks like. The province should make sure that what works in Unionville does not stay there.