RESEARCH

ABSTRACT

As rural communities face aging, population decline, and the withdrawal of public services, the provision of care in rural and northern areas becomes increasingly complex, draws from multiple and often over-lapping stakeholders and organizations, and often functions differently than in more urban or ex-urban areas. Drawing from a series of continuing care capacity workshops held in Northern Alberta, this paper presents a roadmap of both continuing care in the region, as well as a refined model for how capacity can be built, maintained and developed for continuing care practitioners and organizations. Based on five broad research questions, we demonstrate not only the differentiation between rural, Aboriginal and northern communities in terms of continuing care, but also the need to acknowledge that the factors driving the functional success of the provision of continuing care can also become weaknesses.