Red Cross Canada and the Saskatchewan Health Authority have joined forces to provide former hospital patients with regular check-in calls following their stay at the Yorkton Regional Hospital.

The pilot project is called Friendly Calls+ Hospital to Home. It is an evolution of the Friendly Calls program, which provides people from all over Canada with community support in the form of one call per week.

Saskatchewan’s Friendly Calls Program Manager, Shawna Green, says the new pilot is a little bit different.

“It’s more targeted to those who have been discharged from hospital. It will be for a period of 12 weeks. You do receive two to three calls per week, and then we’ll be asking specific questions (such as) how are you feeling? Were you able to get the resources that you were needing?” Green explains.

The calls serve as a reminder that someone cares about their progress even after they have left the hospital. Participants can also become connected to community resources through the calls.

“Just the ability to be able to connect with, not only the people of Saskatchewan, to be able to help be a gap filler for them (is important). To be able to help them in finding resources. To be able to build resiliency or (help them) stay in their own home longer if they so wish.”

Green says once the 12-week program is done, and the patient would like to keep receiving calls, they can transfer into the Friendly Calls program. She adds that participants must be 18 years of age or older.

Yorkton was chosen as the homebase for the pilot due to its rural community setting, and the connections that had been made there through the original Friendly Calls program.

The pilot was launched in mid-January, and the team has already started receiving referrals for future participants.