Dr. Heather Campbell-Enns
Health System Impact Fellow Profile

Name:
Dr. Heather Campbell-Enns
Host Partner Organization:
Manitoba Health, Seniors and Active Living, Government of Manitoba
Name of Host Partner Organization Supervisor:
Marcia Thomson, Assistant Deputy Minister, Manitoba Health, Seniors and Active Living
Location (city, province):
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Academic Institution:
University of Manitoba
Name of Academic Supervisor:
Dr. Malcolm Doupe
Duration of Fellowship:
2 years
Title of Fellowship / Program of Work:
Innovation in the Older Adult Continuum of Care
Contact Information:
Post-HSI Fellowship Career Profile

Biography

My work as a teacher and researcher has centered on the psychosocial health needs of individuals and families across the lifespan. I hold an Individual Interdisciplinary PhD, a Master of Science in Family Social Sciences, and a Bachelor of Education. As well, I completed a postdoctoral fellowship in palliative care. I am a recipient of a CIHR Fredrick Banting and Charles Best Doctoral Award and a Research Manitoba PhD Studentship. These awards enabled me to concentrate on academic endeavors while in graduate school, and they allowed me to participate in several pan-Canadian research projects. My training has laid an excellent foundation for future academic activities. Therefore, I was drawn to the Health System Impact Fellowship since it will provide an experience not readily found in academia, that is, working closely with the Province of Manitoba to use evidence to guide policy that will support elderly Manitobans.

Fellowship Program of Work

The focus of this fellowship is on housing with health services, or community-based housing care options, positioned between the continuum of home care and nursing homes. The goal is to create and apply evidence to guide housing with health services policy reform, enabling these housing options to function more effectively as an alternative to nursing home use for some people. To do so, I will collaborate with local and national partners to identify strengths and weaknesses of current policies, and interview healthcare providers and nursing home residents to explore their perspectives on why some people who are eligible to reside in alternative facilities do not. Then, working with partners, we will provide recommendations for HHS policy reform and team members will forecast the consequences (i.e. nursing home use, costs) of implementing proposed changes.

Partners in this work include provincial and inter-provincial stakeholders, such as the Province of Manitoba, the University of Manitoba (Manitoba Centre for Health Policy; Manitoba Training Program in Health Services Research), and provincial regional health authorities, including managers, staff and residents of nursing homes across the province.

I look forward to unique training opportunities to boost my health systems knowledge, and increase my capacity to plan, manage and implement changes within these systems. I am also excited to establish connections with partners, and to be immersed in provincial policy review and development.

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