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Sheila Moore did not spend a lot of time thinking about where she would live as she got older. But she knew one thing for sure.
“If I have to go to a nursing home, fine, but I’d prefer not to.”
The 82-year-old woman’s home in Fredericton is filled with paintings, art, and photos of her children, grandchildren and her late husband.
“You don’t know what it’s like to have to leave your own home. It’s nice to be able to be in your own home with your own things.”
She plans to stay in it as long as she can. In 2025, she signed up for the Nursing Home Without Walls Program, where she was assigned a wellness co-ordinator to check in to spend two to three hours every few weeks.
“I feel he is like one of my family, and he’s always helpful to me and he sort of cheers up my day.”
Right now, Moore and wellness co-ordinator Emmett Legare are working together to build a dollhouse.
For seniors like Sheila Moore, the Nursing Homes without Walls program gives an option to stay in a familiar space. For the province, it could be a long-term solution to the overloaded long-term care system
“You get to help them with things that maybe they can’t do themselves, or perhaps they don’t get family that are able to do those kinds of things if they’re busy,” Legare said. “So it really feels like you’re visiting with a friend or a family member.”
Nursing Home Without Walls brings emotional and social care to clients, free of cost. Each program operates from an existing nursing home..
Along with one-on-one visits, the program at York Care Centre offers activities open to the community. It also offers educational sessions on a monthly basis for clients on a variety of topics, such as fraud prevention or how to navigate the health-care system.
Additionally, the program provides an accessible bath service through the assisted living complex, access to a food bank and caregiver support.
In 2019, Suzanne Dupuis-Blanchard started Nursing Home without Walls in New Brunswick. Since then, 36 nursing homes have signed up, and 5,200 seniors have received care as a result, according to the Department of Social Development.
The provincial government recently announced it will spend $4 million to expand Nursing Home Without Walls as part of its long-term-care strategy. It’s part of an effort to strengthen community support and services to help seniors age in place.
Dupuis-Blanchard says she saw a gap in long-term-care support, which inspired her to start the program seven years ago.
“The big component about aging in place is the social isolation and loneliness,” Dupuis-Blanchard said.
“Everyone wants to age in place, but not if you’re going to be socially isolated or feel lonely. That’s a big component of Nursing Home Without Walls.”
She said that the results of spending on the program will be long term and could mean older adults will be aging in their own homes and receiving social care and guidance to navigate the health-care system.
“We’re looking at preventing or delaying admissions to long-term care. We’re addressing the need to go, for example, to the emergency department for a non urgent, non-related, medical problem.”
Candace Purcell, the manager of the program offered by York Care Home, says Nursing Home Without Walls is not a direct alternative to nursing homes but is meant to lighten the load of the overloaded health-care system.
“There certainly does become a point when a person is no longer safe even with all of the support in the world. It’s important to recognize that we’re not trying to eliminate nursing home beds. We’re trying to eliminate premature admissions.”
Now six provinces are following New Brunswick’s lead and are planning to pilot Nursing Home Without Walls in their communities. Dupuis-Blanchard said the national expansion is expected to get started by March 2028.
Back in Moore’s home, she and Emmett are hard at work on the dollhouse at her dining room table.
“I’m blind in one eye, so I couldn’t do this alone. But I want to be able to do this, and look at my own pictures and use my sewing machine, make quilts. And it’s just nice to be in your own home with your own things.”
