On August 30th, 2022, the New Brunswick Health Council (NBHC) released the results from the 2021 edition of the Home Care Survey. This Survey is conducted on a three-year cycle to evaluate the quality of home care from the perspective of New Brunswickers who receive these services. In New Brunswick, there are two types of publicly funded home care services: Extra-Mural Program (EMP) services and Home support services (HSS).
In 2021, over 7,700 New Brunswickers completed the Survey. The NBHC has drawn the following key observations from their responses:
- The proportion of patients receiving home care services who reported that their services started as soon as they thought they needed them has improved in the last decade.
- Generally, citizens are satisfied with the home care services they are receiving.
- Although the percentage of citizens who reported being offered services in their official language of choice remained stable, there was a decline in those who indicated always receiving their services in their preferred language.
“The NBHC is pleased to report that many indicators of accessibility and availability for home care services in New Brunswick have improved since the first edition of the Home Care Survey,” says Stéphane Robichaud, CEO of NBHC. “Conducting this survey on a three-year cycle enables our organization to report on trends and changes in health care quality over time”.
The 2021 edition of the NBHC Home Care Survey also contains new indicators regarding the impacts of COVID-19 on citizens’ experiences with home care services.
“Some citizens experienced limitations, reductions, or cancellations of their home care services because of the pandemic” says Robichaud. “While only 8% of recipients of home support services in Zone 6 experienced these challenges, this number increases to almost 23% in Zone 4. Exploring the variability of health care quality and accessibility across health zones will help provincial decision-makers take into account the realities that communities are experiencing at a local level”.
All results from the 2021 edition of the Home Care Survey are now available on the NBHC website. In addition, NBHC’s new interactive web platform enables citizens to compare results from the different cycles of the Home Care Survey, as well as across the various health zones in the province.
For more information about the New Brunswick Health Council: www.nbhc.ca
For interview requests, please contact:
Nay O’Leary
Communications & Digital Content Specialist
Phone: 506-869-6870
Email: Nay.O’Leary@nbhc.ca