12. Barriers to Sustainable Health Promotion and Injury Prevention in the Northwest Territories, Canada

In this chapter, we examine barriers to providing sustainable health promotion and injury prevention programs in Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada. In the context of increasing healthcare costs in Canada, developing sustainable healthcare programs is especially relevant. Using a multiple case study methodology and a framework developed by Schell et al. (Implement Sci 8(15): 1–9, 2013), we evaluate the sustainability of two health promotion and injury prevention programs: Elders in Motion (EIM) and the NWT Aquatics Program. We apply Schell et al.’s (Implement Sci 8(15): 1–9, 2013) nine domains of capacity for sustainability to each program to illustrate the challenges of developing health programs in northern Canada. Our results suggest that largest barriers to sustainable health promotion and injury prevention programs in the NWT relate to program content and delivery, financial issues, and staffing. These findings can inform future health promotion and injury prevention strategies that are intended to improve health outcomes in northern Canada.