Established by the President of the Royal Society of Canada in April 2020, the RSC Task Force on COVID-19 was mandated to provide evidence-informed perspectives on major societal challenges in response to and recovery from COVID-19. They have released a report: Restoring Trust: COVID-19 and The Future of Long-Term Care.

The Task Force established a series of Working Groups to rapidly develop Policy Briefings, with the objective of supporting policy makers with evidence to inform their decisions.

The report begins by reviewing the research context and policy environment in Canada’s long-term care sector before the arrival of COVID-19. It summarizes the existing knowledge base for far-sighted and integrated solutions to challenges in the long-term care sector. The report then outlines profound, long- standing deficiencies in the long-term care sector that contributed to the magnitude of the COVID-19 crisis. Equally important contributors to this crisis are the characteristics of the older adults living in nursing homes, their caregivers and the physical environment of nursing homes.