Painted in Broad Strokes: English-Language News Media Coverage of Home Care in Relation to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada.

This article critically analyzes Canadian English-language news media coverage of home care for older adults during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020–March 2021), using frame analysis informed by critical discourse theory. It finds that home care is often portrayed as a marginal, ill-defined, yet fiscally responsible and morally preferred alternative to long-term residential care (LTRC), which is depicted as unsafe and neglectful. Older adults are framed predominantly as passive, vulnerable victims, while home care workers and family caregivers are cast as benevolent helpers, reinforcing a form of compassionate ageism. The media idealizes the home as a safe, dignified space for ageing, obscuring inequities in housing and caregiving burdens, and tends to offer limited, individual-focused solutions despite emphasizing the scale of the eldercare crisis. The authors call for more nuanced public discourse and political advocacy that recognizes the complexities of home care, avoids stereotypical portrayals of older adults, and addresses structural barriers within the Canadian eldercare system.