Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Mar 25/02) - A new health-care program in communities across Nunavut means more residents can access services right in their homes.

As people adopt busier lifestyles, many don't have as much time to care for elderly parents. It results in many elders leaving their home communities for care in the South, away from family and isolated among people who don't speak the same language.

"It's not such a nice way to spend your golden years," says Carolyn Inookee, Iqaluit home-care co-ordinator.

However, the Department of Social Services is currently training 84 workers and 14 nurses. Many of these trainees will work in their own communities, providing care right in client's homes.

"It might be their elder, or grandmother or aunt (who gets the care they provide)," says Inookee.

"Someone they know and want to give back to."

The program, funded by Health Canada and administered by the territorial government, will offer $4 million worth of services each year in hopes that more people living independently.

The program is expected to take a load off hospital nurses and free up hospital beds. After surgery, some patients (mostly those who live in Iqaluit) can leave the hospital and receive post-surgery checkups by nurses.

Territorial home-care co-ordinator Joe Barnes stresses that patients will only leave hospital when they are ready.

"They'll have to be at a point where they are fully discharged by a doctor," he says.

Expanded level of care

Before this, most home-care workers in communities helped the sick and elderly with housework. Only two programs, in Iqaluit and Baker Lake, provided more extensive health-care services in the home.

Now workers will receive formal training in patient care, recognizing diseases such as diabetes and tuberculosis, and recording information.

Home-care nurses will, among other tasks, change post-surgery dressings and administer medication.

Don Ellis, director of programs for the Department of Health and Social Services, says the program has other benefits.

"It allows people to begin to receive training," said Don Ellis. "Later, they could become a nurse or a wellness worker. This creates a platform for people to move."

Ellis calls the program "the ultimate connector" because home-care workers can refer clients to other services and recognize problems in the home.

"I hope we can train home-care workers to recognize certain kinds of behaviours, when people are acting depressed, or acting erratically," he says.

"It won't be their main job, but home and community care workers can be an antennae -- a way of looking out for the community."

So far, the program is operating in 20 communities. The rest will have the program by the end of March.