About the Caregiver Rx Program
Family Caregivers of BC is here to help healthcare professionals identify and support family caregivers in our community. Unpaid family caregivers are essential to the healthcare system. They provide 80 percent of the care, yet they are often not recognized or included as an important partner within the care team. Research shows that one third of family caregivers are in distress. They don’t feel seen or heard, and they are overworked and under supported. Our mission at FCBC is to educate and provide ways you can include and support caregivers as partners in care.
Family Caregivers of BC’s Caregiver RX program helps healthcare professionals support family caregivers through identification, education, outreach resources, and partnership. Healthcare professionals are critical to the success of emerging caregivers. Caregiver RX helps healthcare providers connect with our organization through our simple referral system, educational micro-webinars, and caregiver promotional materials. The program helps healthcare providers with strategies to build strong partnerships with family caregivers to help expedite care-recipient evaluation and prevent errors in care.
If you are a healthcare professional looking for ways to identify and refer family and friend caregivers to support, review our simple referral resources, and subscribe to our newsletter mailing list to receive updates on the Caregiver RX program.
What is Social Prescribing for Caregivers?
Social Prescribing enables healthcare providers to refer people to non-medical services and community programs to support their health and well-being. At Family Caregivers of BC, we have developed a first-in-Canada innovative Caregiver Rx© Program within the BC healthcare system over the past seven years to identify, support and include caregivers as partners in care. A key part of the model is social prescribing – where healthcare providers make caregiver referrals to Family Caregivers of BC as a one-stop entry point for services and support.
Caregiver RX© 2.0: Social Prescribing
We are thrilled to be able to expand our Caregiver Rx program in collaboration with partners across Canada with funding from the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence powered by the Azrieli Foundation, the Petro-Canada CareMakers Foundation, and the BC Ministry of Health. We look forward to the partnership with the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing, and to building a new Caregiver Social Prescribing Network with our provincial caregiver organization partners.
The two-year project aims to:
- increase caregiver well-being
- scale the Caregiver Rx© Social Prescribing Model
- provide enhanced, holistic wrap-around support for caregivers
- co-create an evaluation approach for caregiver social prescribing
- support health system transformation to identify, support and include caregivers as partners in care
Thank you to our project funders:
News:
The Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence (CCCE) announces its collaboration with the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing (CISP) to enhance health and well-being opportunities for caregivers across Canada. Through a $1.8 million investment over two years, CISP will support Caregivers Alberta, Caregivers Nova Scotia, Family Caregivers of British Columbia FCBC), and the Ontario Caregiver Organization (OCO) to improve access to social prescribing initiatives for caregivers in each province.