Réseau Santé – Nouvelle-Écosse

A clear and accessible health care system is essential for settling into life in your new country. With its Health Guide for Newcomers and Their Families, Réseau Santé – Nouvelle-Écosse offers a practical tool that facilitates access to services and resources. In this interview, the organization presents the history, evolution and impact of this project.

ARAISA: What inspired the creation of the Health Guide for Newcomers?
Réseau Santé – Nouvelle-Écosse (RSNE) The guide was first developed in 2014, to meet the needs of French-speaking newcomers to Nova Scotia. Upon their arrival in the province, it was very difficult for these people to understand the healthcare system and be informed of the resources available. The guide is intended as an initial tool for navigating this complex environment and better understanding the environmental and cultural differences in healthcare provision.
The health guide was completely revised in form and content in 2020, and updated again in 2025.

What are the main features of the Guide, and how does it help newcomers find their way around the healthcare system?
RSNE: The guide consists of two tools: the guide itself and simplified navigation diagrams. The guide presents different aspects of accessing health care, from health card registration to private insurance and mental health resources. Each section includes a description of services, key telephone numbers, tips and whether the service is available in French.
The navigation diagrams attempt to give a clear and simple overview of access to healthcare for physical health issues and mental health questions. They are a first response to quickly understand how the Nova Scotia healthcare system works.

What specific impacts have you seen since the guide was published, both for immigrants and for the settlement workers who work with them?
RSNE: The guide is systematically given to new arrivals who are accompanied by Immigration francophone de la Nouvelle-Écosse, or welcomed by Acadian and francophone partner organizations in the community (schools, community organizations…). The testimonials we’ve received from our partners confirm that the guide’s format, clear and concise content, and navigation tools make navigating the healthcare system much easier. Newcomers tell us that they keep the guide and consult it as families deal with different health issues. For facility counsellors, it’s a tool they can easily refer their clients to.

Can you share any success stories or comments from people who use or refer to the guide or navigation tools?
RSNE: One of the biggest successes is making the guide’s content available to other organizations that can benefit from it, and also suggest improvement. For example, the guide has been revised in NB (2018, 2025), improved again in Nova Scotia (2020 and 2025), and adopted in the Northwest Territories (2021). Other partner organizations are considering adapting it for their own provinces and territories. Similarly, the content has been shared with Western REN so that they can develop an English version.
These collaborations not only enable us to continuously improve the product, but also enable these organizations to take over and develop a key resource at a lower cost.

What difficulties did you encounter in developing these resources, and how did you overcome them?
RSNE: Developing such a tool requires a balance between key knowledge and a tool adapted to the needs of newcomers. The healthcare system is particularly complex for a person from outside the country, and the health and wellness issues are numerous and very diverse. It’s impossible to cover everything without the tool becoming incomprehensible and far too big.
Working with a group of newcomers, choices were made about the structure of the guide, about which resources to prioritize, in order to answer key questions and have a tool that was pleasant to use. A great deal of work was also put into the wording, to ensure that the terms used were also understood by people accustomed to other healthcare systems.
The other challenge is to keep the content up to date: as the healthcare system changes and introduces new programs and services, parts of the guide can quickly become incomplete. Updates then depend on the funding the organization is able to raise to do the work and print the tools.

How have partnerships with other French and English-speaking organizations contributed to the success of your guide and navigation tools?
RSNE: Partners in contact with newly arrived families were with us throughout the development and revision of the guide. Shortly before printing, each partner was able to tell us how many copies they would like to receive, so that we could adapt the guides to their needs.
The healthcare partners helped us review the content and validate the navigation schemes. It was a great collaborative effort.

What are your future objectives for the “Health Guide” and related resources? Are any updates or new tools planned?
RSNE: The guide is a fine tool, and it would be even more interesting to develop a platform that would start from the questions asked by newly arrived people (e.g. “how do I take a blood test?”) to provide them with the resources or information they need. The development of the use of artificial intelligence by healthcare systems is beginning to make this possible, such as the new YourHealthNS application, which uses GoogleAI to help navigate healthcare services and resources in English, as well as in French. The guide could be transformed to make navigation tools easier to understand.
A new guide, dedicated to maternal and child health, was also finalized in 2025 to support newly arrived families who have questions about medical and community support when a child arrives.

How can other organizations or individuals get involved or support your efforts?
RSNE: Our guide is available to organizations wishing to adopt and adapt it to the reality of their province and/or the audiences they support. If you have similar tools, tips or best practices for helping newcomers learn about health care, we’d love to hear from you.
We’d be happy to share our tools with all organizations that come into contact with French-speaking newcomers.
To join us: info@rsne.ca

Useful links

• Health guide for newcomers
• Maternal and child health guide
• Simplified navigation diagrams
• All the Réseau Santé – Nouvelle-Écosse tools for immigrants
• YourHealthNS
• To contact Réseau Santé – Nouvelle-Écosse: info@rsne.ca

Want to showcase your initiatives?

Have a unique story to share? We’re inviting member organizations to contribute ideas for our ‘Member Spotlight’ articles. Share your insights and inspire your peers in the settlement and integration sector. We want to shine a light on your expertise and outstanding work!