Evaluating Canada's compassionate care benefit: a geographic perspective

Equity of access to health services is a main interest of health geographers. Recently, consideration has extended to policy-relevant analyses that forward spatial implications. In 2004, the Compassionate Care Benefit (CCB) was implemented to provide income assistance and job security to insured Canadians who take temporary leave from employment to care for a dying person. However, since it was introduced, uptake of the CCB has been significantly low. The development and implementation of a ‘spatially informed’ knowledge translation strategy can result in the identification of more efficient information-sharing pathways in order to increase needed awareness about the CCB, while examining how Canadians experience and understand the program across various geographic ‘scales’ assists with illuminating challenges and inequities to access. Such geographic perspectives contribute valuable knowledge to program evaluation, which, ultimately can better inform decision-makers on how to more effectively meet the needs of program users and other stakeholders.