Planning, Improvement & Accountability

Learn about the City’s approach to modernizing long-term care infrastructure, improving healthcare outcomes, advancing research and upholding the highest standards of confidentiality and excellence in service delivery.

Commitment to CARE

Seniors Services and Long-Term Care is responsible for service planning and strategic integration of City services for seniors.

The scope of services provided includes:

  • Community support programs such as adult day programs, supportive housing services, tenancy supports and homemakers and nurses services for vulnerable individuals who reside in the community.
  • Directly operating 10 long-term care homes which provide 24-hour resident-focused care for permanent and short-stay admissions; care, services and programs enhance quality of life by responding to individual resident needs.

Mission

We support Toronto seniors and people in long-term care to have the healthiest, most fulfilling lives possible through exceptional care and services.

Vision

An age-equitable Toronto with fully connected services for seniors and long-term care, enabling people to live with support and age with dignity.

Strategic Priorities

We have identified these strategic priorities and key objectives we will focus on during 2022-2025 to fulfill our mission and achieve our vision:

Excellence in Care & Service

  • Integrate our mandates with the goal of being a Centre of Excellence
  • Create strategies to enhance current services
  • Advance resident-centred care through CareTO (opens in new window) implementation
  • Execute on SSLTC Reconciliation Action Plan

Integrated Care & Service Continuum

  • Enable easy access to a full continuum of care
  • Incorporate leading practices
  • Revolutionize IT system to enable seamless communication

Thriving Workforce

  • Attract, retain, and develop staff
  • Evolve and embrace a diversified, inclusive, and equitable environment
  • Establish a culture of continuous learning

Values

Seniors Services and Long-Term Care believes in the CARE values:

Compassion

We are committed to providing compassionate care and comforting support that values the strengths, needs and desires of those we serve.

Accountability

We are committed to acting with integrity and to using City property, services and resources in a responsible, accountable and transparent manner.

Respect

We are committed to upholding resident/client rights and respecting diversity; by embracing our differences and supporting others we demonstrate fairness, inclusion and equity.

Excellence

We are committed to providing the highest quality of care and service; through innovation, teamwork, customer satisfaction, best practices and working co-operatively.

Commitment to CARE

 

The Capital Renewal Plan (opens in new window) will modernize and improve the design of homes while advancing our vision to be leaders in excellence and ground-breaking services for healthy aging. The plan keeps beds in service at each site for as long as possible in order to minimize disruption. Residents will continue to receive excellent care and service throughout the redevelopment program. City Council has directed staff to:

  1. Proceed with the recommended staged approach to address mandatory redevelopment
  2. Enter into discussions with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and Local Health Integration Networks to negotiate bed allocations and movements between locations, and to schedule redevelopment projects
  3. Enter into discussion with Humber College Lakeshore Campus regarding opportunities for a teaching long-term care centre of excellence
  4. Explore opportunities to add affordable housing on the sites being redeveloped.

In addition to approving the Capital Renewal Plan, Council adopted the George Street Revitalization (opens in new window) plan which will include a long-term care home, emergency shelter, and community hub to better meet the needs of homeless, vulnerable and elderly individuals.

The Capital Renewal Plan is based on the following Guiding Principles:

  • Deliver current level of service (2,641 Ministry approved beds) to support high-quality specialized resident-focused care while seeking to maximize cost savings and efficiencies.
  • Promote and preserve partnerships, including ethnocultural, volunteer and community linkages.
  • Respond to emerging community needs and serve vulnerable individuals.
  • Minimize resident disruption related to capital renewal.
  • Advance the Toronto Seniors Strategy with a City-wide commitment to CARE (Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Excellence) by strategically locating its homes throughout the City and by providing community hub space in support of healthy aging.

The five (5) City of Toronto long-term care homes identified for mandatory redevelopment are:

In 2018 City Council adopted the goal to maximize the potential number of long-term care beds which could be located on the sites requiring redevelopment. Based on the sites identified at the time, this could represent an increase of 978 beds to the existing inventory of 2,600+ beds, and would be the first increase (37 per cent) in City-operated long-term care beds in approximately 30 years.

At this time, the addition of new LTC beds is on hold pending a revised capital funding model with the province.

Statement of Information Practices

Seniors Services and Long-Term Care (SSLTC), a Division of the City of Toronto is the Health Information Custodian for ten (10) long-term care homes (opens in new window). This means, under the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA), SSLTC has the responsibility to ensure that personal health information is collected, used, stored and shared with full regard for the protection of privacy and the confidentiality of personal health information. This obligation to protect the privacy of personal health information extends to persons who act as agents of the Ministry of Healthy (MOH) and Ministry of Long-Term care (MLTC).

Access

Individuals who wish to access or correct their personal health information, or have questions about how it is collected, maintained, used or disclosed, are encouraged to contact the long-term care home’s management team.

Individuals may also make a written request for access or to correct personal health information under PHIPA.

Complaints

SSLTC is committed to resolving all concerns or complaints and encourages individuals to first contact the department involved. An individual’s concerns or complaints about access or privacy practices within SSLTC may be directed to the Department Manager. For general concerns or complaints about privacy practices, individuals are encouraged to contact the SSLTC Privacy Office at SSLTCPrivacy@toronto.ca (opens in new window).

Individuals may also submit a complaint regarding access or privacy practices of SSLTC directly with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC):

Information and Privacy Commissioner / Ontario
2 Bloor St. E., Suite 1400
Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8
Phone: 416-326-3333
Email: commissioner@ipc.on.ca (opens in new window)

Contact Information

If you have any questions about our information practices, please contact:

Manager, Privacy and Clinical Information Management
1530 Markham Road, Unit #502 – 5th Floor
Toronto, Ontario M1B 3G4
Phone: 416-392-8490
Fax: 416-392-8457
Email: SSLTCPrivacy@toronto.ca (opens in new window)

  • For 2025-26, each of the City of Toronto’s 10 long-term care (LTC) homes submitted a Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) to Ontario Health
  • The QIPs demonstrate our commitment to collaborate with residents, families, caregivers and external partners to improve healthcare outcomes
  • The QIPs are available from the Administrator, are posted in each of the LTC homes, and are available for download on the LTC home’s website.

Seniors Services and Long-Term Care (SSLTC) have been accredited with Exemplary Standing to reflect compliance with evaluated criteria of the national accreditation program.

Accreditation Canada’s Qmentum® Long-Term Care program (opens in new window) is customized to meet the care needs and core values of long-term care (LTC) homes, with the purpose of guiding continuous quality improvement. The program is founded on the principles of people-centred care and co-designed with insight and guidance from a diverse group of LTC stakeholders.

Accreditation Canada (opens in new window) is a not-for-profit, independent organization accredited by the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua).

Seniors Services and Long-Term Care (SSLTC) welcomes opportunities to enhance our knowledge in pursuit of excellence in the services that we provide. We know that research is an integral component of knowledge building in pursuit of that excellence.

To that end, we have developed formalized processes related to the submission of research proposals these are based on our ethics statement and ethics decision-making principles. This framework guides us to ensure that any research that is approved to be conducted within our division meets the highest standards for health care research and also meets the more specific criteria established by Seniors Services and Long-Term Care.

All research proposals must have prior ethical approval from an accredited university, teaching hospital or national granting agency before the proposal will be submitted to the division’s own Ethics and Research Committee for consideration. All approved research must be conducted in a way that ensures minimal disruption to residents, clients, families and staff and provides learning and potential future benefit related to the enhancement of long-term care. All approved research must comply with the requirements of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA) and the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA).

If you are interested in collaborating with the City in research that would build knowledge in the pursuit of excellence in long-term care and services for seniors, email SSLTCResearch@toronto.ca (opens in new window) for details about the application process.

COVID-19 Resource Guide

The COVID-19 pandemic has been exceptionally challenging for our long-term care residents, staff and families. In particular, social isolation and loneliness present health risks for residents who have experienced long periods of separation from family and friends and limitations on group dining and programming. Preventing loneliness is as important as helping residents with their physical care; even more so during periods of outbreak when contact with others is limited to reduce the risk of virus spread. The tips and strategies provided in this guide below are intended to improve the quality of life of residents affected by pandemic-related restrictions.

These downloadable resources have been made possible by funding support from Healthcare Excellence Canada (opens in new window) and the collaboration of a working group representing the City’s directly-operated LTC homes.

See how the Resource Guide is being used within the long-term care home setting.

Reports

The Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021 and Regulation 246/22 includes whistle-blowing protection.

Whistle-blowing protection is increasingly recognized as a key factor to support the public good and promote a culture of safety. By revealing information that is critically important to the public good, whistle-blowing protection provides an opportunity to address public interest concerns before harm is done.

A whistle-blower is a person who raises a concern about a wrongdoing occurring in an organization and reports it to the proper authorities, either within the organization or to another party.

Please immediately report any suspicion of wrongdoing to the Administrator Director, Long-Term Care Homes at 416-392-8713.