Research Is Not Enough
We Need Replacement Systems
From the Table Series: Replacing Senior Housing with Human Infrastructure
We Know What’s Wrong.
We’ve Known for Years.
And Nothing Changed.
Thousands of studies.
Dozens of commissions.
Endless panels, position papers, and pilot programs.
Still — elders suffer.
Still — PSWs leave.
Still — towns collapse.
This is not an information gap.
This is an infrastructure failure.
The bridge is not broken because we don’t understand engineering.
It’s broken because no one built the bridge.
1. Research Has Never Been the Problem
TREC’s work is rigorous, necessary, and clear.
Their findings have shaped policies, funding formulas, and even care language.
They know the drivers of missed care. They understand trauma. They map the workforce gap.
Their breath toolkit, trauma protocols, and cross-sectional surveys are among the best in the world.
But their role is translation — not implementation.
And Canada’s implementation pipeline is broken.
Here’s what happens:
- TREC conducts the study.
- The report goes to a ministry.
- The ministry runs a pilot.
- The pilot gets buried in an election.
- The result becomes a PowerPoint.
- The homes stay the same.
No scale. No infrastructure. No change.
2. We Mistake Publishing for Progress
There’s a dangerous pattern in elder care:
- Identify crisis
- Commission research
- Publicize findings
- Praise the team
- Move on
But nothing structural shifts.
Because while the report circulates, the workers quit.
While the paper is peer-reviewed, the resident falls.
While the ministry debates, the daughter drives six hours to say goodbye.
Studies don’t save lives.
Systems do.
3. The Table Is Translational Infrastructure
It didn’t start as an idea.
It started as a refusal — to wait for permission while people suffered.
The Table is not a policy.
It’s a built environment.
A care economy.
A platform.
It doesn’t pilot the concept. It operationalises it.
- Trauma response is not a policy memo. It’s a space in the home.
- Workforce stability is not a theory. It’s co-housing, wage integrity, and clinical debriefing.
- Food systems are not future goals. They’re already growing.
Where traditional elder care asks for reports, The Table demands results.
And it uses research not as a conclusion — but as a foundation.
4. What Research Can’t Do Alone — and Why
Researchers are not builders.
They reveal the truth.
But truth without action becomes harm.
The Table was designed to receive the research — and act on it.
Every design element answers a known data point:
- Staff trauma → embedded coherent breathing and peer-led debrief rooms.
- Missed care → reduced ratios, family integration, flexible shift formats.
- Rural flight → economic anchors, local food and energy production.
- Elder isolation → co-designed activity formats, cultural continuity.
Not just responsive. Regenerative.
Not “evidence-informed.”
Evidence-enacted.
5. If It’s Not Built — It Doesn’t Count
At some point, you have to stop documenting the fire — and put up a structure that won’t burn.
The Table is that structure.
It doesn’t dismiss research.
It activates it.
Because if we’re serious about saving this country from demographic collapse and cultural amnesia —
Then study is not enough.
We need systems.
Let’s build.
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Thanks!
B
We’re not short on research.
We’re short on replacement systems.
TREC mapped the damage.
Governments piloted paperwork.
Nothing changed.
The Table isn’t a policy.
It’s a built response.
Trauma support. Wage anchors. Family-first care.
PS -