Project 460802

In Canada, uncontrolled high blood pressure (hypertension, HTN) is a leading cause of death and is overly common among older adults (OA) age 65+. OA and clinicians report that limited access to health system services is a barrier to the success of Canada-wide community-based primary health care (CBPHC) initiatives. Thus, it is imperative to strengthen partnerships between community and clinic settings to facilitate care for OA with uncontrolled HTN. Faith-based organizations (FBO) are a prime setting for facilitating these linkages because OA are already highly likely to be engaged with FBO (35% of Canadians age 55+ report embracing religion). Despite this, there is limited research on effective strategies to build collaborations between FBO and health systems to identify OA with elevated blood pressure (BP) and refer them for HTN care. This project will engage community-dwelling OA, FBO, and primary care clinic stakeholders in co-creation of an evidence-driven intervention for identification and referral of OA from FBO to partnering clinics through application of a Community-Based Participatory Research framework. In Year 1, I will conduct focus groups with OA, FBO, and clinical stakeholders to identify barriers and facilitators to identification and referral of OA from FBO to clinics. In months 13-21, I will use these findings to co-create an evidence-driven intervention with stakeholders. In months 22-30, I will use process and outcome measures to evaluate the implementation process between one FBO and two clinics. The final 6 months will comprise data analysis. These findings will represent the first structured, scalable framework for FBO/CBPHC collaborations that identify OA with elevated BP and refer them for HTN care. Successful completion of this work will create generalisable knowledge that will enable the Canadian health system to meet the needs of its aging population by harnessing the strength of OA affiliations with existent community organizations.