Rapport récapitulatif: Caractérisation de la population francophone âgée du Grand Saint John (2015-2023)
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Date
2025-04-01
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Bilingualism makes the province of New Brunswick (NB) unique within Canada, bringing with it a high level of linguistic diversity and cultural enrichment. However, as Canada’s only officially bilingual province, NB also faces issues of language barriers affecting segments of its population.
There is limited information about the size of the Francophone community in NB that would prefer services in French while living in majority Anglophone areas. Without this information, it is challenging to accurately show the potential demand for French-language health and social services. In a previous report (Balzer et al., 2023), NB-IRDT constructed a profile of the Francophone population in the Greater Saint John (GSJ) region of NB. That report provided an evidence base for identifying potential language barriers facing Francophones as they attempt to access appropriate and timely healthcare in majority Anglophone areas.
In this report, we extend that earlier work (Balzer et al., 2023) to construct a profile specifically of the older Francophone population (age 65+) living in GSJ. Using current data sets held at NB-IRDT, this study compares various health and sociodemographic measures between older Francophone and Anglophone New Brunswickers living in GSJ (an urban English-majority community) as well as older Francophone and Anglophone residents living in Moncton (an urban French-majority city) and the Rest of NB.[1] It looks at these populations’ health status, health service use, social services receipt, household composition, neighbourhood socioeconomic profile and in-home care and nursing home status.
Older adults are more likely to experience complex health conditions and have greater healthcare needs, making language barriers particularly impactful as they try to navigate the healthcare system. Effective communication in healthcare is essential for getting an accurate diagnosis, following treatment and staying healthy, making it important for patients to receive care in a language they understand well. This is especially important for older adults since fluency and comfort speaking a second language can decline with age. Understanding the specific challenges faced by older Francophone residents in GSJ can help inform policies and services that support equitable healthcare access for this population.
[1] “Rest of NB” includes all Forward Sortation Areas (FSAs) fully outside the Saint John and Moncton Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) as classified by the first three digits of the areas' postal codes.