Navigating Aging New Resource for Health and Home Care Systems

When Dr. Michelle Lafrance began working on a project to help New Brunswick seniors and their caregivers navigate the health and home care systems, she had no idea that within months she would be relying on that research for her family.

“I was at a conference and received a weird text message from my father,” the Psychology professor recalls. “It literally made no sense and I started to worry about him.”

Within months, her father was diagnosed with dementia and Lafrance was facing the same obstacles her research hoped to alleviate for others.

Aging in New Brunswick: A User’s Guide – aims to fill in the gaps she faced when taking care of her father.

Just a few months after launching the guide in September, the public’s response has been overwhelmingly positive. Lafrance has since teamed up with Horizon Health and the Department of Social Development to distribute the guide to more New Brunswickers.

“The guide was put together by researchers and practitioners in New Brunswick who work with older adults,” she said. “Our aim was to help older adults in New Brunswick navigate the complex landscape of information, services, forms, and resources. There is no one-stop shop for services and healthcare issues for seniors in the province.”

The project was led by Lafrance and project manager Ashley Erb (BA'21), with the collaboration of Dr. Michelle Greason (Social Work), Dr. Janet Durkee-Lloyd (Gerontology), and research assistant Lauren McWilliams (BA'20) at St. Thomas University, researchers at the University of New Brunswick and the Université de Moncton, Karen Lake Caregiving Consulting, and the Collaborative for Healthy Aging and Care. The project was funded by the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation and the New Brunswick Social Policy Research Network, with additional funds granted by the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation and St. Thomas University.

The idea stemmed from

Lafrance’s SSHRC funded study on caregivers of older adults. One of the most consistent things she heard during her interviews was how people felt overwhelmed when trying to access resources or services and how there was a need to gather information in one place.

Aging in New Brunswick: A User’s Guide is a ten-chapter document that deals with issues from long-term care homes, to financial or legal matters, to equipment available for making everyday movements easier.

Project manager Ashley Erb was a student when she started working on the project with Lafrance. She says there was a pressing need for a guide written in clear language which dealt with the critical “pain points” of aging.

“Navigating a complex system is difficult for most people, let alone those who could be in crisis or dealing with a family member or friend needing help or care,” Erb said. “We hope this guide will take away some of the guesswork and reduce the navigational burden that so many people seem to face when trying to find information.”

“It’s what I wish I would have had when I went through this with my dad,” Lafrance adds. “There are a lot of manuals out there on how to take care of children but there are no manuals on this. I hope it helps a lot of people.”•

Aging in New Brunswick:A User’s Guide is available in English and in French and can be downloaded for free at STU.ca/aging-in-nb. Print copies of the guide are available in New Brunswick public libraries and will be available for free by calling 2-1-1 later this year.

Angela Bosse