Aging Well Starts with Connection - Social Health from the Hearth #6

By Barb Young  

Imagine this. 

As you read these words, a senior is sitting alone in a local hospital room, a room that has been their temporary home for the past eight months. Their real home is here in the northern Lanark Highlands. But they cannot return to it. Not because they need medical care, but because they need help with daily living: meals, housekeeping, laundry, transportation to appointments, reminders to take medications, someone nearby if they need help, and, perhaps most importantly, regular human connection. 

None of these supports are medical. None require doctors, nurses, or clinicians. 

So, a fair question arises: 

If this person doesn’t need medical care, why are they occupying a hospital bed that costs approximately $1,200 a day, a bed someone else urgently needs? The answer is uncomfortable, but important. 

This didn’t happen overnight. It unfolded slowly. Declining strength. Living alone. Limited family support. No longer driving. Lower income. A remote setting. The quiet stress of realizing that everyday tasks are getting harder. 

And always the worry: 

“What happens to me now?” 

“I can’t afford a retirement home.” 

“I don’t want to leave the area I’ve always called home.” 

Eventually, a medical issue arises. Hospitalization follows. When the issue is resolved, the person is ready to leave, but can’t. Their status changes to ALC: Alternate Level of Care. 

Not sick enough to stay. 

Not supported enough to go home. 

Not wealthy enough for private options. 

So, they wait - sometimes months, for a long-term care bed. Hospitals were never meant to be homes. Long-term care was never meant for people who only need help with daily living and social supports. Yet this is happening every day, quietly, expensively, and unfairly. 

What we’ve been missing is a solution hiding in plain sight, rooted in the definition of health provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1946 — a definition that still stands nearly 80 years later. It states very clearly that health has three equal pillars: 

• physical health 

• mental health 

• social health 

Social health our sense of connection and belonging, and our support networks—has always mattered. But it has remained largely invisible in healthcare systems. In June 2025, the WHO didn’t just reaffirm this definition; it announced social health as a global health priority.

The evidence is overwhelming. Strong connections helps people live longer, healthier lives, reduce emergency visits, delay institutionalization, support aging at home- and costs far less than medical intervention. 

What if we started where the solution actually lives? 

What if everyday human connection was recognized as essential infrastructure? 

That is what the Highlands North Network is working toward - and it starts this spring. Our path ahead will be built step by step, with each phase carefully building on the one before it. 

Phase 1 (1 year): 

A pilot project to strengthen consistent, reliable social health supports across our communities, with identified partners invited to observe, learn, comment and follow progress. 

Preferred funding: Ontario Trillium Foundation Seed Grant. 

Phase 2 (3 years): 

Building on proven approaches to expand social health supports and deepen partnerships, with funders and policy-makers now informed and beginning the engagement process. 

Preferred funding: Ontario Trillium Foundation Grow Grant. 

Phase 3 (3–5 years): 

Moving forward on the foundation created in Phases 1 and 2 we will work with our partners in healthcare, transportation, affordable housing, and assisted living , and bring it all together. The cost savings of this human-centred, all-inclusive approach will place us in a strong position for broader approval. Funders and policy-makers will be invited to advise and contribute at this stage. 

Preferred funding: New Horizons for Seniors – Pan-Canadian Stream. 

Over time, social health becomes recognized, funded, and protected as essential - the third pillar of health, finally operational and replication-ready. A pillar that will serve rural folks equally, regardless of income. 

This spring, HNN will host five community roadshows. Not to present a finished plan but to build one, together. Why? Because we believe the strongest solutions will be shaped by the people who live here. 

If you want to age comfortably where you are… 

If you believe connection matters… 

If you don’t want hospitals or institutions to be the only answers… 

Please reserve your spot at the roadshow nearest you this spring. Date and locations will be announced soon. The first step is the most important one - and it starts with all of us, united as one. 

If any of this resonates in your life, we’d love to here from you. Maybe you are a senior and this is your life right now, or it is the reality of someone you care about. Perhaps, you are looking ahead to 10 years from now, and wondering what healthcare will look like for you. Maybe you serve in a professional capacity, and have something to say. We want to hear it. Please call us at the number listed in the newsletter or send your comments by email to highlandsnorthnetwork@gmail.com.