Questions to Ask the Care Coordinator in Nunavut

Who You're Talking To

Nunavut's elder care system has three tiers of coordination, and knowing which person handles which question saves you from being passed around:

The local Home and Community Care supervisor at your community health centre manages day-to-day home care delivery — scheduling, service hours, and the initial intake assessment.

The regional care team reviews cases that exceed home care capacity and recommends facility placement. They work in collaboration with the territorial coordinator.

The Territorial Continuing Care Coordinator ([email protected]) manages the territory-wide waitlist for all facility beds, coordinates with the Medical Travel Division for out-of-territory placements, and is the decision point for placement offers.

Questions for the Local Home Care Supervisor

About the assessment:

• What is the expected timeline for my parent's in-home assessment?
• Can we request an Inuktitut-speaking assessor or interpreter?
• What documents should I have ready for the assessor's visit?
• If my parent is having a particularly good or bad day during the assessment, can we request a follow-up evaluation?

About home care hours:

• How many hours per week of homemaking support has my parent been allocated?
• Is my parent receiving the maximum 2 hours per day of personal care assistance?
• If my parent's needs increase, what triggers a reassessment?
• Is there any flexibility in the schedule for weekend or evening coverage?

About the care plan:

• What specific services are included in my parent's care plan?
• How often will the plan be reviewed and updated?
• Who is the primary contact if the scheduled worker does not show up?

Questions for the Territorial Continuing Care Coordinator

About the waitlist:

• What priority tier has my parent been assigned — Priority 1 (crisis), Priority 2 (urgent), or Priority 3 (stable)?
• What would need to change for my parent to be reclassified to a higher priority?
• How many people are currently ahead of my parent at their priority level?
• Are there beds expected to open in any specific facility within the next three months?

About placement offers:

• If a bed opens in a community that is not my parent's home community, how much time do we have to respond?
• If we decline a placement offer, what happens to my parent's position on the waitlist?
• Can we request placement specifically in a facility where staff speak my parent's Inuktitut dialect?

About out-of-territory placement:

• Under what circumstances would my parent be offered a bed at Embassy West in Ottawa?
• If we accept a southern placement, does the government cover family travel to visit?
• What happens if we want to transfer my parent back to a Nunavut facility later — do they go back on the waitlist?
• If my parent passes away at a southern facility, what are the government's obligations regarding repatriation of remains?

Questions About Medical Travel

• Does my parent qualify for an automatic medical travel escort based on age and language?
• If the automatic criteria are not met, what clinical documentation is needed to secure an escort approval?
• Who approves escort requests — the local practitioner or the regional director?
• If an escort request is denied, what is the appeal process and timeline?

Keep a Log

Write down who you spoke with, the date, and what was said. Nunavut's care system runs on institutional memory — individual coordinators know the file, but documentation protects your family if staff change, a decision is contested, or you need to escalate to the Office of Patient Relations (1-855-438-3003, [email protected]).

The Nunavut Elder Care Guide includes a printable agency communication log and a complete list of questions organized by stage of the care process — from first assessment through facility placement and medical travel.

See more Nunavut guides →