Family Caregiver Resources
Although 71 per cent of caregivers are interested in using technology to support their caregiving tasks, only seven per cent are using care-related technology, according to AARP’s 2016 Caregiving and Technology study.
Fifty-eight per cent of the caregivers surveyed in a 2018 survey by the Change Foundation said they used the internet for gathering additional information on how to properly care for their loved one. Only 28 per cent turned to formal care providers.
How could caregivers in your community benefit from more support? What is your vision for caring for caregivers? We want to help you bring your program to life by supporting you to submit a grant proposal for funding from BC’s Ministry of Health.
In partnership with the United Way of the Lower Mainland and the CBSS Leadership Council, Family Caregivers of BC is launching a new initiative to help bring more local support to family and friend caregivers in approximately 20 British Columbia communities.
Following local, regional and provincial consultations, an emergent theme was the growing number of older adults who want to continue to live in their own homes but are challenged with limited access to community-based support programs that are integrated with primary health care services. Our goal is to address this gap by helping those leading impactful initiatives and encouraging new partnerships that lead to more integrated, family-centred health and social services across the province gain access to potential funding opportunities.
The BC Ministry of Health has provided funding to support the delivery of these demonstration projects over a 2.5 year period, from January 2020 to June 2022. Within this funding is The Family & Friend Caregiver Support Program stream, which will fund demonstration projects that focus on supporting family and friends who provide unpaid care for someone living in the community with higher needs – chronic disease, frailty or life-limiting conditions. Broadly, projects aim to enhance caregiver wellbeing by increasing skills, knowledge, confidence, and inclusion as partners in care. Projects will support caregivers to build strong networks and effective connections with their health care teams to anticipate and respond to changes in health status over time – theirs and/or the person they are caring for. Services under these projects can include individualized one-to-one emotional support, peer support, information and referral to community services, navigation assistance, and access to education and coaching.
Family Caregivers of BC (FCBC) will support projects via information, consultation, training, evaluation, and ongoing collaboration. We will help grantees design and implement processes and activities that fit each community.
Grant applications are open now! Submit yours by July 31, 2019 through the United Way’s Health Aging CORE website.
If you wish to speak directly about the Family & Friend Caregiver Support Programs, please contact:
Whitney McMillan, Provincial Projects Lead, Family Caregivers of BC, 604-880-0351 or whitneymcmillan@familycaregiversbc.ca
Note: all questions will be posted to the grant ‘Discussion Group’ on the CORE website.
There are two other funding streams available under this program:
This funding stream supports primary care physicians and other health practitioners to identify seniors at risk of frailty, support them to develop a wellness plan, and link them with community-based seniors’ support services. Demonstration projects funded through this call for proposals are encouraged to build on the Community Actions and Resources Empowering Seniors (CARES) project currently being piloted in Fraser Health and other best practice approaches for social prescribing. The CARES approach partners pre-frail older adults with primary care providers and community-trained lay wellness coaches. Note that this grant stream is not open to communities within the Fraser Health region (since this is the site of the current pilot project).
This funding stream is a multi-faceted prevention-oriented program designed to support seniors who are homebound, to delay their use of health services (e.g. adult day care, assisted living and complex care), and to instead be supported in community for as long as possible. Demonstration projects will build on the Therapeutic Activation Program for Seniors (TAPS), a wellness program located in Creston, BC that supports isolated seniors who are experiencing barriers in accessing community resources. Programs will include proactive outreach through daily/weekly telephone calls to participants, transportation to and from the program, a nutritious meal, and exercise/education/ recreational activities tailored to the needs of different individuals within the program (e.g. activities appropriate to male participants, people from different cultural communities, people living with dementia, people with mobility impairments).
Find out more at the United Way of the Lower Mainland’s Healthy Aging CORE website.
If you are unsure about what kind of help you can access in the community when caring for someone, you are among the many British Columbians who find navigating the healthcare system overwhelming and confusing.
Many caregivers find the co-ordination role (like that of a case manager) the most stressful part of caregiving, even though it takes less time than providing personal care or helping with other caregiving tasks. [Read more…]
Family Caregivers of BC is pleased BC’s Seniors Advocate is once again raising the issue of caregiver distress. In the current report “Caregivers in Distress – A Growing Problem”, she points to a 7% increase in the percentage of Home Support clients who have a primary caregiver in distress, which equates to roughly 1,000 caregivers; a 14% increase in actual numbers since her first report “Caregivers in Distress – More Respite Needed” was published in 2015.
These numbers reflect only the caregivers whose care recipients are receiving Home Support services. There are many more caregivers in the community whose loved ones are not Home Support clients. You can read the full report here.
These findings reinforce what we experience daily on the front lines of caregiver support. Call volumes to our Province-wide Caregiver Support Line are growing, and many caregivers are coping with increasingly complex caregiving situations. We are spending more time on each call and many are referred to our 1:1 Caregiver Coaching service to receive in depth support. We’re noting more caregivers are distressed which translates into feelings of depression, confusion, overwhelm, and uncertainty about how they can continue.
We support family caregivers by referring them to caregiver support groups, resources in their local communities, service options from our online resource library, our quarterly newsletter, and our educational webinars. We also provide assistance in setting up peer led caregiver support groups.
It is our mandate to ensure no one provides care alone. We work hard to ensure the voice of family caregivers is represented in health system design and implementation, and that health care providers are aware of important role they can play in identifying and referring family caregivers to our services.
My Dad is 95 years old and honestly, some days I can’t believe he is still alive. I’m his only daughter and caregiver. I’ve been looking after him for 4 years now. In those years, we’ve had pneumonia, a broken hip and a stroke. What I’ve really learned is there are always unexpected challenges. I kept thinking that if we got over the bump in the road, the caregiving would get easier, until I figured out that there would always be another bump in the road.”
Caregiving isn’t easy. Some days it might feel like boot camp. Other days, you expect things to be hard and you breeze right through them. The bottom line: caregiving is unique to all families. It’s likely that you’ll experience changes in your relationships with spouses/partners siblings, children, and mostly, the person you’re caring for. You can also expect some strong feelings to surface. Mostly, caregivers are surprised by the number of challenges they face or ones they didn’t expect. [Read more…]