Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Older adults with complex care needs have overlapping physical, cognitive, mental, and social health issues, which can make navigating the healthcare system challenging. Patient navigation programs (PNPs) are designed to improve patients' access to healthcare upon hospital discharge by connecting them to appropriate resources and supports in the community, and by empowering patients in managing their health. Patient navigation can be particularly effective for older adults, many of whom receive services from several and separate components of the health and social care systems. This proposal seeks funding for a one-day meeting to support the development of best practice guidelines for PNPs for older adults with complex care needs. To achieve this goal, we will first share our team's research findings about PNPs for older adults to a diverse group of professionals, researchers, patients and their families. Next, we will obtain feedback from these different groups on a preliminary set of evidence-based best practice guidelines for PNPs for older adults. We will then organize an in-person meeting to critically reflect on these guidelines, and to refine them for adoption by other organizations interested in developing their own PNPs for older adults. The proposed activities will provide opportunities for knowledge exchange by enabling participants from diverse sectors (acute care, rehabilitation, community, policy and patients) to share their perspectives on key considerations on best practices for PNPs for older adults. This will lead to a better understanding of patient navigation, and greater cohesion among diverse groups from different sectors working to improve the health and wellbeing of older adults with complex care needs.