Supporting Family Caregivers Providing Complex Care

Authors
Susan C. Reinhard
Heather M. Young
Rita B. Choula
Karen Drenkard
Beth R. Suereth
Implementation Tool
November 2020

Headline

This series of papers includes promising practices, recommendations, vignettes, and other helpful tools to assist health systems in supporting family caregivers providing complex care.

Context

The Caregiver Advise, Record, Enable (CARE) Act, enacted in over 40 states and territories as of December 2020, is designed to support family caregivers in performing complex medical and nursing tasks for loved ones after hospital discharge. To understand how health care systems can better support family caregivers, AARP’s Home Alone Alliance conducted a national CARE Act scan that identified promising practices and barriers for implementation in health systems. This series of papers contains themes, practices, and examples to help health systems improve patient and family engagement.

About this Tool

Themes addressed in the series include: learning resources and practices, staff training practices, communication practices, electronic health record practices, transitions in care and hospital discharge practices, approaches to making practice and system changes, pharmacy innovations, and screening practices. Each paper highlights ways that health sysems can support family caregiver and quantifies the value of these services from the perspective of provider organizations.

Takeaways

Family caregivers are valuable, yet sometimes overlooked members of teams that serve people with complex health needs. This series of implementation tools can help health systems to understand the value of family caregivers and identify strategies to better support family caregivers in meeting the needs of their loved ones. 

Posted to The Playbook on
Level of Evidence
Expert Opinion
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