The New Brunswick Health Council (NBHC) is launching its third survey about the quality of home care provided to New Brunswickers. Citizens who have recently received home care services for which costs are entirely or partially covered by public funds may receive a survey by mail between March and June and will be asked about their experiences. The survey will look at accessing and navigating services, meeting the needs of clients and their families, provider/client communication, safety, equity based on preferred language of service, and overall satisfaction with services. By collecting New Brunswickers’ care experiences for the third time in 7 years, the NBHC will be able to inform the public about developing trends in the quality of services.
Home care includes health services that can be provided by a nurse, social worker, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, speech language pathologist, respiratory therapist, dietitian, or rehabilitation assistant; they are most often provided by the Extra-Mural Program.
Home care also includes personal care services provided by a home support worker to help with bathing, dressing, grooming, feeding, transferring, home cleaning, laundry, meal preparation, or respite/relief care; they are most often provided by home support agencies. In New Brunswick, the Department of Health funds the Extra-Mural Program and the Department of Social Development funds home support services, entirely or partially, based on eligibility.
The overall results of this survey will be made public in the spring of 2019 and will be available to the public, as well as to government departments, regional health authorities and home support agencies to help improve health services. Ongoing delivery of the survey will allow for greater trending and comparison with the results of the 2012 and 2015 surveys, and will allow the NBHC to observe if improvements have been made to home care services in the province.
More information about the survey is available online at https://www.nbhc.ca
The NBHC has been established as an independent organization that measures, monitors and evaluates New Brunswick’s health system performance through a citizen-centered dual mandate of performance measurement and citizen engagement.
NOTE: Media are welcome to contact the NBHC at the start of the survey, for progress updates during the survey period, or at completion in June.
MEDIA CONTACTS
New Brunswick Health Council: Frank Vandenburg, 506-869-6728, frank.vandenburg@nbhc.ca