Aboriginal Continuing Care

In 2007 First Nation organizations, the federal and provincial governments and district health authorities began working together to improve home care services on Reserve in Nova Scotia. This collaborative effort is documented in the AHTF Project Proposal and was funded by Health Canada's Aboriginal Health Transition Fund (AHTF).

The long term goal of this initiative was to improve access to home care services for individuals living on Reserve. The work involved undertaking a comprehensive review of current federal and provincial home care policy, an assessment of service gaps and capacities in each First Nation community in the province, a comparison of First Nation and provincial home care program utilization data and a cross Canada policy review. All of this information and analysis resulted in 31 recommendations for change and is contained in the Aboriginal Home Care Framework report.

The partners have had a number of successes already with policy changes being made to increase access for First Nation individuals living on Reserve to continuing care programs delivered through the district health authorities.

In response to concerns raised by First Nation partners, additional AHTF funds were secured to complete a review of Aboriginal long term care issues. This work involved a comprehensive review of federal and provincial long term care policy, an analysis of best practice literature, a survey of Canadian long term care facilities on Reserve, an assessment of policy and service delivery issues in each First Nation community in Nova Scotia, an analysis of First Nation long term care utilization data and a cross Canada policy review. This information and 11 recommendations for improvements are contained in the Aboriginal Long Term Care in Nova Scotia report.

The AHTF Project Evaluation report summarizes the key issues, challenges and lessons during the project (2007-2010).

 

Documents