°®Éñ´«Ã½

Sector: Health & Wellness  | Date: Mar. 31, 2025

Researchers: °®Éñ´«Ã½: Tammie Black, Dr. Kyle Brymer, Sonya Ducey, Jackie Perry, and Practical Nurse and Step Up to Nursing Students; U of Manitoba: Dr. Jamie Penner; UNB and UNBSJ: Dr. Catherine Hamilton, Kimberly Wilbur, Derek Gaudet, and Bachelor of Nursing Students; St. Stephen High School and Kennebecasis Valley High School Students.

Background

As the number of Canadians who are aging and living with a chronic progressive illness increases, so does the need for informal caregivers to provide in-home care. Many informal caregivers (family and friends) and seniors feel unprepared to care for seniors aging at home.

Project Vision

With this project, we aimed to enhance the quality of informal care provided to seniors aging at home. Involving health students (as well as secondary students) we hoped to strengthen future healthcare and support of seniors and their families.

Goals

Informal caregivers (i.e., family and friends) would have increased access to and awareness of this training program and will acquire improved skills and abilities and preparedness for the caregiving role.

Informal caregivers (participants) would experience decreased social isolation and will have access to increased support networks and increased access to services/supports.

Participants would also experience intellectual stimulation due to group learning. Informal caregivers will also have access to respite care while attending these workshops with their senior.

Students would have an increased awareness of the family caregiver role and improved self-efficacy delivering education to informal caregivers and seniors aging in place.

Research Outcomes

A four-day workshop improved caregivers' quality of life and their preparedness for caregiving. Loneliness was found to negatively affect quality of life, indicating that addressing loneliness could further enhance caregivers' well-being and support aging in place for seniors. Additionally, being well-prepared for caregiving was linked to better quality of life, emphasizing the value of equipping caregivers with the necessary knowledge and resources.

Partners and Supports

This program was originally a research project that was funded through the Healthy Seniors Pilot Project (HSPP) initiative of Social Development, supported by the Public Health Agency of Canada, from April of 2022 to March of 2025.

The goal of the applied research initiative was to examine and improve how governments, in partnership with the research community, non-profits, and the private sector, could better support seniors in their homes, communities, and care facilities. Healthy Seniors Pilot Projects helped New Brunswickers to better understand the gendered impacts on an aging population, improve the quality of life for our seniors, and help us lay the groundwork for the dissemination of evidence-based best practices in supporting healthy aging for all Canadians.

Senior Care Navigation became funded by the Government of New Brunswick’s Department of Social Development as a social program in April of 2025 with current funding to March of 2028.

Media Coverage:

• (CBC News - Feb 25, 2025)