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J. O’Neil1,2, D. Cardinal3, S. Marchand1, G. Handrigan4, J. Savard1
1University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada, 2Bruyère Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada, 3Consortium national en santé, Université d’Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada, 4University of Moncton, Moncton, Canada
Background: Falls in older adults is an important public health concern globally which can lead to detrimental health consequences and therefore need particular attention. In Canada, unintentional falls were reported as the number one cause of hospitalization for older adults. Francophones living in a minority situation in Canada have lower physical activity participation, poorer health status compared to anglophone Canadians, and limited access to healthcare services delivered in their language of choice.
“Marche vers le futur” is a telehealth fall prevention program developed for older francophone adults targeting primary fall prevention. This multifactorial telehealth program includes educational videos, supervised group and home-based exercises, and pre-post assessments. Implementing this program across francophone communities in Canada could have positive impacts on access to health services while preventing fall risks for francophone Canadians living in minority situations.
“Marche vers le futur” is a telehealth fall prevention program developed for older francophone adults targeting primary fall prevention. This multifactorial telehealth program includes educational videos, supervised group and home-based exercises, and pre-post assessments. Implementing this program across francophone communities in Canada could have positive impacts on access to health services while preventing fall risks for francophone Canadians living in minority situations.
Purpose:
This project aimed to identify the strategies used to facilitate reach, adoption, and overall capacity building leading to a successful implementation of this program across Canada.
Methods: Using the RE-AIM program evaluation framework, this study will report on:
1) Reach, measured as the percentage of the francophone community that was contacted by the team, the number of provinces involved, and the number of health facilitators recruited; reasons for participating or declining participation.
2) Adoption, defined by the number of communities implementing the program, the number of facilitators who completed the training and the number of health facilitators who started the implementation; factors that facilitated adoption.
3) Capacity building is documented by the number and types of tools developed, description of interactions with the communities and technical support used before the implementation stage.
We recruited francophone communities as well as program facilitators across Canada to implement the telehealth program.
1) Reach, measured as the percentage of the francophone community that was contacted by the team, the number of provinces involved, and the number of health facilitators recruited; reasons for participating or declining participation.
2) Adoption, defined by the number of communities implementing the program, the number of facilitators who completed the training and the number of health facilitators who started the implementation; factors that facilitated adoption.
3) Capacity building is documented by the number and types of tools developed, description of interactions with the communities and technical support used before the implementation stage.
We recruited francophone communities as well as program facilitators across Canada to implement the telehealth program.
Results: Out of 34 communities contacted over one year, we recruited eight communities from 4 different provinces (24%) to implement the telehealth program. Twenty-two program facilitators from various backgrounds including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, kinesiology, social work, and health education were trained. To date, four programs have started their implementation. The 17 implementation tools created to support implementation of the program will be described. These include 1 promotional video, 9 educational videos, 1 security video, 1 assessment video, 3 implementation manuals, and 2 control lists. Each community interacted monthly for a minimum of 6 months before implementing the program, providing insights on adoption facilitators.
Conclusions: Identifying reach, adoption, and capacity-building strategies required to successfully implement a telehealth program across francophone communities in Canada can inform future program implementation for this specific context. This study is part of a larger mixed-method multi-layer study investigating factors influencing implementation, effectiveness, and maintenance.
Implications: Finding ways to build capacity and reach francophone communities living in minority situations in Canada to improve access to rehabilitation services in their language of choice is critical. Successful telehealth falls prevention program implementation could have an important impact on the health and wellbeing of francophones living in a minority situation and improve access to francophone programs leading to a positive change towards health equity.
Funding acknowledgements: This project was funded by Health Canada, Societé Santé en français, and CNFS-Volet UOttawa.
Keywords:
Telehealth
Fall Prevention
Access to services
Telehealth
Fall Prevention
Access to services
Topics:
Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Service delivery/emerging roles
Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Service delivery/emerging roles
Did this work require ethics approval? Yes
Institution: University of Ottawa
Committee: uOttawa REB
Ethics number: REB #H-11-21-7449
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
