SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — Nursing Home Without Walls

Honourable senators, Canada’s population is aging. It is estimated that one in 10 seniors who is admitted into a long-term care facility could remain in their home longer or for good, if the proper community services were available.

In order to respond to seniors’ desire to remain at home for as long as possible and to address the costs related to institutionalization, a nurse, professor and researcher and her team at the Université de Moncton developed a program to support home care.

Nursing Home Without Walls is an evidence-based program. It promotes aging in place in an innovative way, by drawing on the resources and expertise of long-term care facilities and extending them beyond the walls of those facilities.

Nursing Home Without Walls provides services that support older adults in their homes, such as social visits, dispatching volunteers to help with things like washing hair or providing foot care and helping people navigate the health care system. So far, the results have been impressive. Evaluations have shown that the Nursing Home Without Walls program has improved social connectedness, reduced social isolation and loneliness and enhanced knowledge on where to turn for help. From the perspective of the health care system, this program is also relieving pressure on primary care by allowing visits to doctors or nurse practitioners to focus more on essential medical issues.

I want to congratulate Dr. Suzanne Dupuis-Blanchard and her team at Université de Moncton for establishing and leading such a commendable and influential initiative.

We are proud that Nursing Home Without Walls was first piloted in four communities in our province between 2019 and 2023. Moreover, because of its positive impact, the program was adopted by the provincial government so it could be gradually expanded across the province.

Thanks to people like Lyne Chantal Boudreau, Minister of Seniors, who is here with us today, New Brunswick currently has 31 Nursing Home Without Walls programs. The program’s expansion is continuing, not only in new communities across the province, but also in five other Canadian provinces. That is proof that the program works.

Honourable colleagues, the Nursing Home Without Walls program represents an important shift to community-based support models. Continued research, political support and investment will be key to ensuring its sustainability.

Thank you. Meegwetch.