Carya Launches a New Pilot to Better Support Older Adults
For many older adults in Calgary, reaching out for help takes courage.
But too often, that first step is met with a wait that can deepen distress instead of easing it.
That is the challenge behind Carya’s new Older Adult Triage Accelerator Project: a pilot designed to respond more quickly and more effectively to the growing and increasingly complex needs of older adults in our community.
The need for this work has become impossible to ignore.
Since 2017, demand for Carya’s Older Adult Counselling program has increased by 77%, while average wait times have grown from 33 days to 120 days. By late 2025, 178 older adults were waiting to access counselling.
These numbers tell an important story, but the real urgency is seen in what happens when people wait too long.
George’s experience is one example.
When he first contacted Carya, it was because his doctor suggested he seek out counselling. During his call with Carya’s intake coordinator he shared very little about what he was experiencing and asked only to be placed on the counselling waitlist.
What he did not immediately share was that he was grieving the loss of his spouse, living on less than $800 a month after pension deductions, struggling to afford food and medication, and becoming increasingly isolated.
By the time he was connected to counselling, his situation had become critical, and George was having suicidal ideations.
Fortunately, confidence was quickly built with his counsellor, and with coordinated support, George’s circumstances quickly changed.
Once trust was established, George was able to share more about the challenges he was feeling deeply ashamed of. He was connected not only to counselling, but also to financial benefits, housing support, and advocacy that reduced pension garnishments and more than doubled his monthly income.
He began to regain stability, dignity, and hope.
But his story also raises an important question: What if he had been able to access the right support sooner?
And that question sits at the heart of this pilot.
Older adults are facing a widening gap in access to care.
Across the broader system, many services are narrowing their focus to only the most acute situations, shifting to single-session models without follow-up, or increasing eligibility thresholds.
For seniors living on low incomes, navigating grief, poor health, housing stress, or social isolation, those gaps can have serious consequences. Delayed care can mean worsening mental health, greater instability, and missed opportunities for early intervention.
Carya’s response is both practical and forward-looking.
Funded through the Calgary Foundation and the Government of Alberta’s Community Initiatives Program, the Older Adult Triage Accelerator Project will explore a different entry point to support through single-session and extended single-session counselling. Instead of waiting months for help, older adults will be able to access immediate support within one to three sessions. In that time, they will receive a comprehensive assessment of their holistic needs, immediate counselling support, and a personalized plan for next steps, including coordinated referrals where needed.
For clients like George, this coordinated support means not having to share his story over and over again and having access to services to address his holistic needs sooner.
This pilot is important evolution from existing models, not simply because it offers faster access, but because it is designed to better understand what each person actually needs.
For some, a small number of sessions may be enough to provide clarity, support, and direction. For others, those early conversations may uncover more complex challenges that require a broader, wraparound response. The pilot will help Carya test how earlier intervention and more responsive triage can connect people to the right level of care sooner.
That is where Carya’s integrated model becomes especially powerful.
Mental health challenges in later life are rarely separate from the realities surrounding them. Financial strain, housing instability, grief, caregiving pressures, declining health, and isolation often overlap. This pilot is designed to identify those intersecting issues earlier and connect older adults to the right combination of supports, whether that includes ongoing counselling, financial coaching, housing navigation, social connection programs, or community services.
In other words, the pilot is not only about reducing wait times. It is about creating a more responsive pathway into care: one that helps people feel seen sooner, supported sooner, and less alone in navigating complex systems.
This approach builds on what Carya already knows works. In 2025, 71% of Older Adult Counselling clients who had slight, some or high distress at beginning of treatment had reduced distress by the end of treatments, and 42% of respondents with distress at the beginning of treatment reported no distress by the end of treatment.
Through The Way In Network, where Carya serves as backbone agency, clients who were supported in filing income taxes and applying for benefits, pensions, and subsidies, the percentage of clients who were receiving federal benefits increased from 34% to 75% at file, while the percentage receiving provincial subsidies increased from 26% to 69%. One hundred percent of clients agreed that staff treated them with dignity and respect.
The Older Adult Triage Accelerator Project brings that same foundation into a new model designed for today’s realities.
Running until March 2027, this pilot will not only test a more responsive approach to care but will also generate insights Carya can share with supporters and systems influencers to help shape stronger, more effective responses for older adults across our community.
This is what innovation looks like in community-based care. It is not innovation for its own sake. It is listening closely to what people are experiencing, identifying where systems are falling short, and adapting and testing services to respond with greater urgency, compassion, and effectiveness.
For more than a century, Carya has evolved alongside the changing needs of the community. This pilot continues that legacy by testing a more timely, person-centred approach to care for older adults in Calgary.
Because when someone reaches out for help, timing matters. And with the right support at the right time, a different path forward becomes possible.