Community Collaboration to Improve Health Care Access of Northern Residents

Project Overview

In collaboration with the Rural Development Institute at Brandon University, the Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit (SPHERU) completed a research project that looked at ways to improve access to health care for northern residents.  The study took place in participating communities in northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba.  Researchers worked with groupings of communities rather than individual communities to facilitate inter-community sharing of issues and generation of solutions.  Participating in the Saskatchewan portion of the study were five communities within the jurisdiction of the Athabasca Health Authority (Stony Rapids, Black Lake First Nation, Fond du Lac First Nation, Uranium City, Camsell Portage) along with two communities within the Mamawetan Churchill Regional Health Authority (La Ronge, Pinehouse Lake).

A key goal of the project was to create a forum for dialogue involving community residents, community organizations, health-related organizations, health service providers, RHAs and others interested in access issues.  A two day inter-provincial workshop fulfilled this goal by bringing together community leaders, residents, health service providers and policy makers from both Saskatchewan and Manitoba to discuss barriers to northern health care access and possible solutions.  The workshop focused on a review of the research findings and a discussion of current health delivery structures and policies in order to create a common understanding amongst participants of the factors that contribute to health care access barriers.  Understanding how barriers are created allowed for meaningful discussions to generate solutions and the building of relationships to move the process of change forward.

The study looked at the following research questions:

1. What are the experiences of northern residents in accessing health services and what are the issues identified by community members and health care providers from an analysis of those experiences?

2. How can the experiences of northern residents and northern health care providers be used to influence and design health care delivery and healthy public policy?

3. What is an effective collaborative process and forum for engaging community residents and health care organizations in discussions of access issues and creative solutions?

4.  What population health data (quantitative and qualitative) can be gathered and used by small northern communities to improve access to health services?

 Focus groups and interviews were held with residents in all communities to gather stories of their experiences in accessing health services.  Discussion meetings were also held with local health care providers to hear their perspectives regarding access to health care services for residents of their communities both locally and outside the region.  Full and summary reports of the project findings, along with population health data reports were prepared for each of the health authorities.  It is hoped that a deeper understanding of the experiences of both health service users and health care providers in the north will assist policy makers and health authorities to create appropriate solutions to address health care access barriers.

Research Team

• Robert Annis and Fran Racher, Rural Development Institute, Brandon University

• Bonnie Jeffery, Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Unit (SPHERU), University of Regina

Related Documents 

"Community Collaboration to Improve Health Care Access of     Northern Residents" Summary Report of Findings Athabasca Health Authority (PDF)
"Community Collaboration to Improve Health Care Access of     Northern Residents" Summary Report of Findings   Mamawetan Churchill River Regional Health Authority  (PDF)