The Story of Nursing Home Without Walls

Program overview :

Nursing Home Without Walls (NHWW) helps nursing and long-term care (LTC) homes support older adults to age in place with access to essential services and support.

Created by researcher Dr. Suzanne Dupuis-Blanchard from the Université de Moncton, this program facilitates healthy aging at home by providing access to essential knowledge, support, and services.

In 2019, four English and French-speaking rural communities began implementing the NHWW model in their local nursing homes in 2019 through the Healthy Seniors Pilot Project. Although somewhat different in their approaches, their goals were the same – to support aging in place in their local communities. Early results of the NHWW pilot programs include:

• Increased satisfaction with levels of social interactions and outings.
• Increased knowledge on who to contact to get information on services for aging at home.
• 69% of older adults stating that the services received are accessible and support them to stay in their home.
• Increased feeling of security in their home and the community.
• 100% of older adults are satisfied with the services offered by NHWW.
• Prevented some non-urgent visits to the Emergency Deptartment or medical after-hours clinic.

To advance the adoption of NHWW and support older adults living and aging in community, the New Brunswick Department of Social Development (Social Development), Université de Moncton and Healthcare Excellence Canada partnered together to spread and scale the NHWW initiative beyond the four pilot sites. In 2025, a funding opportunity was announced for Nursing Homes in New Brunswick to establish a Nursing Home Without Walls program within their local communities.

Over the course of the next year, Social Development, Healthcare Excellence Canada and the Université de Moncton provided support, coaching and resources to sites during the planning and implementation of their NHWW programs. Learnings and impacts from the spread and scale of this innovation are currently being measured with the plan to share, so that other jurisdictions across Canada can learn from the work being done in New Brunswick.

About the pilot sites

Four nursing homes volunteered to pilot the NHWW program. These homes were in the rural communities of Port Elgin, Lamèque, Inkerman and Paquetville. Access to services is complex in rural communities -New Brunswick is composed of 49% rural communities.

All four nursing homes implemented the program at the same time and offer services to meet the needs of their communities (based on previous consultations and community needs assessment), without duplicate existing resources or services.

Lamèque

In Lamèque, NHWW initially assisted older adults with frailty at home with personal care, meals, medication and socialization. Services expanded to include transportation, community activities, home maintenance and caregiver support, reflecting a community- and person-centered approach to holistically address the diverse needs of older adults and their caregivers.

Inkerman and Paquetville

In Inkerman and Paquetville, NHWW provides home maintenance, transportation, bathing, foot care, health clinics, and socialization for older adults. Paquetville collaborates with a local volunteer organization for meal services. Sharing a coordinator, the nursing homes maintain distinct service approaches while leveraging proximity and similar needs between the communities.

Port Elgin

In Port Elgin, NHWW prioritizes community service access. The program aids older adults in accessing federal, provincial, and local services by assessing their needs and assisting with applications. Addressing social isolation, weekly coffee chats are hosted, and transportation is coordinated for appointments and errands. Expanding services, Port Elgin lends equipment and supplies to support older adults in comfortable home living.

NHWW in the community: What we’ve heard