Finding elder care in Canada can be confusing and stressful. Families have to navigate long-term care waitlists, different levels of retirement living support, eligibility requirements, budgets, and often they are under time pressure. Social workers and discharge planners want to help, but resources can be limited and fragmented across various websites and platforms.

When Elderado joined the CABHI Ignite Program in March 2025, the goal was to accelerate our vision of a simpler, clearer, and more transparent way for families and health care workers to navigate and compare elder care options. Nine months later, Elderado has launched new tools, expanded partnerships across Ontario, and supported more than 60,000 users.

What Is CABHI?

The Centre for Aging and Brain Health Innovation (CABHI) is a leading Canadian hub for innovations that improve life for older adults, caregivers, and front-line health care workers. CABHI, powered by Baycrest, supports early-stage solutions that address real challenges in aging, dementia care, and system navigation.

CABHI provides:

• Access to research and clinical expertise
• Support with testing and validation
• Engagement with older adults, caregivers, and clinicians
• Strategic mentorship
• Funding to accelerate development
• Connections to health care partners across Canada

For companies working in elder care, CABHI is one of the most influential and credible partners available.

What Is the CABHI Ignite Program?

The CABHI Ignite Program is designed for early-stage innovators building products for aging, caregiving, and brain health. Ignite helps organizations refine their solutions, test them with real users, and position them for adoption within the health system.

“With Canada’s population aging at an accelerated pace, advancing innovations that improve the lives of older persons is critical to building a healthier, more resilient future,” says James Mayer, Chief Operating Officer of the Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI). “Our Ignite program supports early-stage researchers and startup companies with transformative aging and brain health solutions by removing barriers that often stall innovation progress. By breaking down these barriers, we can accelerate innovation and make meaningful, lasting impacts on the lives of older persons, people with dementia, and their care partners.”

Key strengths of the Ignite Program include:

Research and validation

Ignite guides innovators through structured evaluation to determine whether their solution works in real-world elder care settings.

End-user engagement

The program provides access to older adults, caregivers, clinicians, and health care leaders who offer practical feedback.

Mentorship and sector connections

CABHI advisors can help make introductions to key contacts, and sector leaders who can help test and scale solutions.

Funding

Financial support enables early-stage companies to build, test, and improve their solutions more quickly.

For a platform like Elderado, this combination of funding, credibility, and access was essential to accelerating growth.

Why Elderado Joined the Ignite Program

Elderado was created to help Canadians navigate elder care with clarity. Families often struggle to understand:

• The difference between long-term care and retirement homes
• How waitlists work
• What levels of care exist
• Which retirement homes have availability
• How to compare retirement living options

Hospitals and health care workers do their best to guide families, but they often rely on manual phone calls, spreadsheets, and inconsistent information.

By March 2025, Elderado had built a strong foundation, but needed support to:

• Validate its platform with caregivers and clinicians
• Build tools to address gaps in availability information
• Strengthen partnerships across the health system
• Accelerate product development and adoption

The CABHI Ignite Program provided the ideal environment for that growth.

What Elderado Has Accomplished in Nine Months Through the Ignite Program

From March through November of this year, Elderado made major progress in building tools that support families, caregivers, and community partners. Below are the key accomplishments during the first nine months of the Ignite Program.

1. Launching the Retirement Living Availability Registry

One of Elderado’s most significant achievements during the Ignite Program has been the creation of the Retirement Living Availability Registry (RLAR).

August 2025: Early testing begins

With CABHI’s guidance, Elderado tested a prototype of the RLAR with caregivers, retirement homes, and health care professionals. This testing helped refine the workflow, language, and user experience.

September 2025: Official launch

The RLAR launched publicly in September 2025. It is the first tool in Ontario designed to show current retirement home availability in a clear and accessible way.

Families, social workers, discharge planners, and care coordinators can now:

• Find retirement homes with current availability
• Filter by location, and care level
• Learn more about every retirement home
• Contact retirement homes directly through Elderado

Before the RLAR, families often were forced to call multiple retirement homes to find homes with availability. The RLAR replaces this with a single, reliable source of availability information.

2. Partnering With 30 Hospitals, Ontario Health Teams, Clinics, and Community Agencies

A major area of growth during the Ignite Program has been Elderado’s partnerships with the health system. In nine months, Elderado expanded to 38 community partners (hospitals, clinics, Ontario Health Teams, older adult resources) that now use Elderado and the RLAR to support elder care navigation.

CABHI played a direct role in making these partnerships possible. Through the Ignite Program, CABHI:

• Made introductions to contacts at Ontario Health Teams, hospitals, and community care
• Provided credibility that helped Elderado earn the trust of clinicians
• Supported early conversations to align the RLAR with hospital workflows
• Helped Elderado communicate the value of real-time availability to discharge planners and care coordinators

These partnerships have helped hospital staff:

• Reduce the time spent calling retirement homes
• Provide families with clear, up-to-date information
• Improve transitions from hospital to retirement living when appropriate
• Support families during stressful decision-making moments
• Use consistent tools across teams and departments

CABHI’s network and introductions were essential in helping Elderado establish these relationships.

3. Supporting More Than 60,000 Users

To date, Elderado has supported over 60,000 users, including:

• Families researching retirement living and long-term care
• Seniors exploring independent and assisted living
• Caregivers navigating sudden or complex transitions
• Health care professionals guiding patients and families

Elderado users have grown by 44.7% since the beginning of the Ignite program, including a noticeable uptick after the launch of the Retirement Living Availability Registry, showing a strong need for real-time availability information in elder care navigation.

How Ignite Enabled Elderado’s Growth

Over nine months, the Ignite Program helped Elderado:

• Test and validate new features with real users
• Improve product design based on clinical and caregiver feedback
• Strengthen relationships with hospitals and community partners
• Gain credibility within the health and aging sector
• Accelerate timelines from idea to testing to launch
• Build tools that better integrate into health care workflows

The combination of funding, mentorship, research support, and introductions has been transformative for Elderado’s growth and adoption.

Looking Ahead

The next phase of Elderado’s growth includes expanding the RLAR across Canada, deepening partnerships with hospitals and community agencies, and building new tools to support home care navigation. Elderado is also preparing to introduce French language support, which is a crucial step toward serving families, caregivers, and frontline workers, and ensuring a more accessible experience for users across the country.

The progress made in the nine months since joining the Ignite Program shows what is possible when innovative solutions receive the support, evaluation, and partnerships needed to succeed.