1. An Introduction to Senior Friendly Care
A primer for executives
Thank you for choosing to learn more about senior friendly care.

2. The 4 things we’ll discuss today
What’s in this for you
What is senior friendly care?
How senior friendly is your organization?
Your role in senior friendly care
In the next 5 minutes, we would like to:
Let you know why we think this will be important to you and your organization
Provide you with a brief overview of the senior friendly care framework
Highlight the resources available to assess your organization’s strengths and opportunities for senior friendly care
And review what you can do to make a difference in the way care is provided with older adults in your organization

3. What’s in this for you
Providing senior-friendly care is beneficial to older adults / caregivers / families; your organization; and the healthcare system as a whole.
Senior friendly care:
Contributes to better health outcomes
Delivers the quality of care older adults are expecting
Increases satisfaction for staff
Fosters collaboration across sectors to ensure smooth, timely transitions of care and the right level of care being provided in the most appropriate place
Moves metrics that matter
By providing senior friendly care, your organization contributes to better health outcomes for older adults, which is a win for everyone: older adults / caregivers / families; your organization; and the healthcare system as a whole.
Senior friendly care helps your staff deliver the quality of care that older adults are expecting, rather than the kind of care they *think* older adults might want.
Senior friendly care benefits the healthcare system as a whole by fostering collaboration across sectors to ensure smooth, timely transitions of care, and the right level of care being provided in the most appropriate place.
Senior friendly care moves metrics that matter, and is aligned with your other strategic priorities, such as health outcomes, safety, patient and staff satisfaction, and occurrences of care being provided in less appropriate settings (for example preventable ED visits, or alternate level of care days in acute care).

4. What is senior friendly care?
The sfCare Framework’s guiding principles and defining statements collectively describe what senior friendly care looks like.
Click here for the Framework, or go to
You might be wondering what senior friendly care is exactly, and if your organization already provides it.
The Senior Friendly Care Framework describes what senior friendly care looks like. Some of the guiding principles and defining statements may sound like the kind of care that your organization provides to everyone…such as the guiding principle of “compassion and respect”, but in order to deliver compassionate and respectful care to older adults, it is important to consider their needs.
The Framework serves as a blueprint of what care should look like for older adults in your organization.

5. How senior friendly is your organization?
sfCare Getting Started Toolkit
Self-assessment tool
Implementation resources
5 min educational videos:
An Introduction to sfCare – top tips for staff
An Introduction to sfCare – a primer for executives (this video)
Click here for sfCare resources, including the Toolkit, or go to
You may be wondering how senior friendly your organization is. We encourage you to use the sfCare Getting Started Toolkit, which includes a self-assessment tool to help gauge your organization’s strengths and opportunities around senior friendly care. The sfCare Self-Assessment Tool translates the sfCare Framework into 10 actionable recommendations along with questions for your organization to answer. A report card is generated from your results. Reports describing aggregate results from across the sectors will also be available.
The sfCare Getting Started Toolkit also includes carefully curated resources to guide the creation of action plans; sfCare educational information for your staff; and this video which is sfCare educational information for executives.

6. Your role in sfCare – establish leadership
Ensure a leadership structure is in place which supports your organization’s commitment to senior friendly care.
Determine who will be accountable for senior friendly care, and what their roles and responsibilities will be.
Schedule regular, purposeful communications with the sfCare Executive and other Executives, and Board of Directors
Must have
Executive
One of the 10 recommendations in the sfCare Self-Assessment tool is that “Commitments to the Senior Friendly Care framework are included in the organization’s strategic plan, operating plan, and/or corporate goals and objectives.”
In order to operationalize this recommendation, a senior friendly care leadership structure should be established in a way that best fits your organization. At a minimum, it is recommended to have someone at the executive level of the organization designated as the person responsible for senior friendly care. You may also have 1 or more front line staff designated as champions and/or a steering committee who guide improvement initiatives.
Ensure that the sfCare leadership structure is embedded in your organization’s leadership processes and operations.
Steering Committee
Might have
Might have
Champion(s)

7. Your role in sfCare – listen to older adults
“We want providers to be informed, positive, encouraging and engaged.”
“We don’t want [health care providers] to tell us that it’s all because of our age.”
“We want interaction with providers rather than pamphlets.”
“I want to feel as if you are talking to me as an individual with my specific needs not just as other older persons who are all alike.”
“Be respectful, inquiring, culturally sensitive and not condescending.”
“Be personal, get to know me and don’t be rushed; then it’s easier for me to share.”
“We want interaction with providers rather than pamphlets.”
In your role as a leader, it is helpful to have an understanding of what older adults expect from you and your staff. The best way to do this is to actively solicit their feedback (though mechanisms such as surveys, interviews, comments cards etc.) Here’s what older adults shared with us when we asked them about the kind of care they expected:
Older adults said they value interaction with their care providers, and would choose an interaction over a pamphlet.
They want us to understand that they are unique individuals, not just an older individual. While there are age-related changes that we should be mindful of when providing care, it is important to remember that an older adult’s experiences, preferences, and capabilities make their needs unique to them.
An older adult wants their symptoms explored, and an explanation for their symptoms provided; they don’t want their health concerns brushed off as age-related. In fact, assuming that something is age-related in an older adult opens the door to missed diagnoses.
They want providers to be informed, positive, encouraging, engaged, respectful, inquiring, culturally sensitive, and not condescending.
One of the best ways to accomplish all of this is to fulfill their request to “be personal, get to know me and don’t be rushed; then its easier for me to share”.

8. Your role in sfCare – actively support staff
Be a role model
Watch the 5 minute “Intro to sfCare” video for staff to learn more about age-related changes and ways to promote safety and comfort for older adults.
Listen to staff
Visit the areas in your organization where care is provided to older adults and ask care providers about their thoughts on senior friendly care.
Being a role model by taking the time to learn what you expect your staff to learn about senior friendly care is a great way to show staff that senior friendly care is important in your organization.
Another way to actively support staff is to visit care areas and engage them in conversations about senior friendly care in your organization.

9. References
What is senior friendly care Regional Geriatric Program of Toronto’s (RGP) Senior Friendly Care (sfCare) Framework Handout.pdf How senior friendly is your organization RGP’s sfCare Getting Started Toolkit and other sfCare resources Your role in sfCare – listen to older adults RGP’s sfCare Intersectoral Conference, 2018 Your role in sfCare – actively support staff Central East Senior Friendly Hospital (SFH) Working Group’s SFH Walkabout Framework
This concludes our introduction to senior friendly care. Here are the resources that were used for this video. We encourage you to see what other resources are available to you or your staff in your organization, or visit our website for other senior friendly care resources at
For more resources on senior friendly care, visit:

10. Driving system change to advance the quality of care for older adults living with frailty. Innovating bold solutions to complex care problems.
Better health outcomes for frail older adults
We hope this video has provided you with a better understanding of senior friendly care.
Thanks for watching, and thanks for doing what you can to make a difference in the care of older adults.
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V1 2018