Team profiles :

Prairie Mountain Health

At a Glance  

Region: Manitoba

Setting: Rural

EAIP program principle(s): 

• Access to specialized healthcare services
• Access to social and community supports 
• Access to system navigation and support 

Implementation (new, spread, and/or expand):   

• Expand 

Team Profile  

The organization leading this initiative is Prairie Mountain Health (PMH). The collaborative team includes a variety of interdisciplinary staff including leadership (managers, supervisors and directors), as well as an Indigenous Health Community Liaison, and a Regional Lead and Clinical Change Lead to provide evaluation and measurement support. 

Community

• PMH provides programs and services in rural, remote, and urban communities for southwest Manitoba, covering 64,800 km2. It runs east to west from the Saskatchewan border to Waterhen Lake, Lake Manitoba and Treherne and south to north from the United States border to the 53rd parallel.  
• Brandon is the largest urban centre with a population of 51,313 and the second largest urban centre is Dauphin with a population of 8,457. 
• There are 14 First Nation communities, Métis communities, towns and villages throughout the region.  
• The largest proportion of the PMH population resides in the south zone of the region (44.5%). Geography and low population densities pose challenges with sustainability of services in parts of the region. 

Program Focus

Program Description  

• Prairie Mountain Health's (PMH) Service to Seniors Program (SSNP) aims to support seniors and their caregivers by enhancing access to essential resources and services, enabling seniors to age at home and delay entry to long-term care. PMH's Service to Seniors program recently expanded to include community Navigation Resource Coordinators. These Navigation Resource Coordinators will adopt a community development approach, engaging with each community to identify needs and challenges while enhancing the network of resources available to support seniors and their caregivers. The partnerships built and information gathered by the Navigation Resource Coordinators will be used to support seniors and their caregivers to navigate and access services to enable them to age at home.
• Collaborating with existing PMH programs, Indigenous Patient Advocates, and community partners, the Service to Seniors Navigation Resource Coordinators will leverage opportunities for seniors to engage socially, connecting individuals with appropriate resources, activities, and services such as social groups, art or exercise activities, and learning opportunities.

Implementation Approach: 

• Ideas Fair: An Ideas Fair will be held annually in various places that are inclusive of the 52 communities supported by the SSNP. The Fair will be a key engagement strategy used to inform the services included in the expansion of the Services to Seniors program. Sessions are tailored to capture what is offered in each community by listening to community connectors share their stories so that the gifts and assets that support Aging in Place can be identified and supported through this program.
• Developing of an Aging in Place Central Database: Develop a PMH database of up-to-date local programs and services available in each community. Navigation Resource Coordinators have visited all the communities and First nation communities within Prairie Mountain Health to learn what resources and programs are available for seniors. The Database will provide information to 34,288 seniors and 633 First Nation seniors in the region.
• Development of Senior Friendly Resources: Develop senior friendly written resources. Ongoing revisions will take place as information is received or existing information is changed and will be informed by both the Ideas Fair and the Navigation Resource Coordinators Asset Mapping of each community.