Once admitted to long-term care (LTC), residents often stop seeing their specialist physicians despite high need. We will convene residents, care partners and family physicians in LTC; specialist physicians and researchers to foster mutual understanding of specialist continuity in LTC. New connections between research users and researchers and research partnerships and plans will be formed through 3 activities over 4 months:
1. Inaugural relationship-building meetings (Aug. – Sept. 2026, 60 minutes virtual) to convene the Primary Applicant and Co-lead and 48 LTC residents and/or family care partners, 4-8 family physicians and 4-8 specialist physicians who provide care in LTC. Format: roundtable introductions, structured dialogues on experiences and perspectives of specialist continuity in BC LTC to identify research priorities for the partnership. Outcome: a participant-derived list of priorities and a draft partnership statement.
2. LTC site visit (mid-October 2026, half-day in-person) at a Fraser Health LTC home, with researchers meeting residents, care partners, and on-site clinical and operational staff in their own setting. Format: morning roundtable with the LTC site leadership, and midday shared meal and debrief with residents, care partners, clinical staff, and leaders. The site visit grounds the partnership in the lived reality of LTC and builds direct relationships that virtual meetings cannot.
3. Synthesis and planning meeting (mid-November 2026, 60 minutes virtual) Reconvening research users and researchers to review feedback from the inaugural meeting and site visit, finalize the partnership statement, and identify co-investigators / research partners on a CONNECT bi-provincial mixed-methods study. Outcome: a finalized partnership statement and roster of co-investigators / research partners for the next phase of work.
Anticipated Outcomes:
– New, durable partnerships between the research team and research users, i.e., residents/family care partners, LTC family physicians and specialist physicians.
– Identification of PWLE and clinician research-user co-investigators willing to participate in the planned CONNECT study and downstream research, supporting authentic patient-oriented research co-production.
– Identification of research priorities through deeper mutual understanding among researchers and research users of which gaps in specialist care delivery to LTC residents are most consequential to those who experience and witness them.