The Decline in Family Care for the Aged in Nineteenth-Century Ontario: Fact or Fiction

Two myths exist concerning the care of the aged in the past. The first purports that the aged were cared for by their families and that public assistance for the aged destroyed familial responsibility towards the elderly. In response to this contention, a second myth, which argues that the aged were not cared for by relatives, highlights the sufferings of abandoned and destitute aged people in institutions. In nineteenth-century Ontario, while the aged were not always cared for by kin, they were rarely willingly abandoned by their families. Evidence from diaries, letters, and institutional records indicates that families regularly provided whatever amount of care their resources would allow. However, financial restrictions, or the illness or senility of an aged person, often made it impossible for a family to cope with the demands this care entailed. When this occurred, many families institutionalized their aged in a House of Industry or an Asylum. While families have been blamed for subjecting the aged to the harsh conditions of these institutions, in most instances, they did so out of necessity and not by choice. It was the lack of public assistance and adequate facilities for the care of the aged, and not the irresponsibility of families, which caused the suffering which was so common among the aged poor during the last century.