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New Brunswick’s Nursing Home Without Walls program expanded to its 31st location this week.
On Monday, French retirement community, Faubourg du Mascaret, in Moncton, officially joined the program. The community’s two francophone nursing homes, Pavillon Landry and Pavillon Richard, are under the Shannex umbrella.
“We’ve been doing a lot of work around understanding from the seniors that are living in our community,” said Gillian Ferris, vice president of operations for enhanced care for Shannex New Brunswick.
“What are the services that they’re needing, what’s missing? What would help them live a better, more fulfilled life, have a better quality of life.”
WATCH | Nursing Home Without Walls adds 31st site:
Nursing Home Without Walls to expand beyond provincial borders
A program helping older people age at home was piloted in New Brunswick in 2019 and has now grown to include 31 nursing homes.
The Nursing Home Without Walls started in 2019 as the brainchild of Suzanne Dupuis-Blanchard, a professor at Université de Moncton’s school of nursing and director of the Research Centre on Aging.
The program helps older adults who want to remain in their homes. It extends the reach of the nursing home into the community, offering home visits, social activities and access to community resources.
Originally there were four participating nursing homes: three in the province’s Acadian peninsula, and one in Port Elgin.
Suzanne Dupuis-Blanchard says she’s thrilled the program that started with four pilot locations has now expanded to 31 different nursing homes. (Victoria Walton/CBC)
“It’s really something to see it happening on the ground, seeing the impacts, hearing the stories mostly, and knowing that it’s actually really working,” said Dupuis-Blanchard. “That people are receiving the help that they’re supposed to be receiving or that they want to receive to stay at home.”
Since the pilot phase ended in 2023, the program has been expanding continuously, something Dupuis-Blanchard said is hard to process.
“To see it at 31 [sites] today with more that we know are going to apply, it’s just such good news for New Brunswick older adults and their families,” she said.
French and English, rural and urban
When the program started, all of the nursing homes involved were in rural communities. But since then, the program has also expanded to Moncton, Fredericton and Saint John.
However, Dupuis-Blanchard said seniors living in urban communities are sometimes more isolated than those who live in rural areas.
“Rural communities tend to take care of each other, right? They are, they know their neighbors,” she said.
Lyne Chantal Boudreau, minister responsible for seniors, said she hears from many older adults who are facing loneliness.
A group of seniors at Pavillion Landry watches a live music performance, something that other seniors will soon be invited to participate in as members of Nursing Home Without Walls. (Victoria Walton/CBC)
“I feel so sad to say that, but yes, there is seniors across New Brunswick who don’t have any families around them and they feel very alone,” Boudreau said.
The nursing homes participating in Nursing Home Without Walls also represent a mix of bilingualism and both of the province’s official languages, something Boudreau says is important.
“That’s very important to serve our seniors in the language of their choice,” she said. “It will be easier for them to explain what they need and make sure that the person who are with them understand, really, their needs.”
As of October, there have been more than 4,000 registered participants in program, according to Boudreau.
Currently, New Brunswick is the only location to have Nursing Home Without Walls participants—but not for long. Dupuis-Blanchard has partnered with Healthcare Excellence Canada and is in talks with five different provinces about expanding the program there.
“We are currently signing the agreements with the groups and whatnot, and so more to come on that for sure,” she said.
Those program expansions are expected to be announced starting in January 2026.