‘Family’ means something different to every person needing and receiving care. Discovering who a patient’s or client’s family or primary support people are, helps to clarify who is available to partner with the care team. Health care professionals frequently interact with family and friend caregivers, but what is the value of including family & friend caregivers in the care team and planning?
- Information provided by the caregiver is as important and can be as dependable as a medical record
- Care planning is often of the primary responsibilities of the caregiver
- Caregivers are often the ones responsible for managing the continuity of care
- Caregiver can inform assessments, which can prevent medical errors and inefficiencies¹
Research shows that inclusion of family and friend caregivers in care planning and in the care team
has a positive impact on outcomes.
By partnering with caregivers, the benefits to health care providers include²:
How healthcare providers can support family caregivers:
Family members are often viewed as passive visitors. Health care providers are in the unique position to encourage their support and involvement in the ways we interact with them.
- Take the lead! Don’t wait for them to show initiative. They are often feeling overwhelmed and unsure of what to do.
- Find ways to include them from the start. Try to be welcoming and supportive of family caregivers, and get to know them.
- Engage the caregiver by asking them questions.
“How are you doing?” Understanding the caregiver as an individual can help create the right care plan for the patient or client and their support system – the family caregiver. “How are you doing?” versus “how are you coping?” sounds less clinical and more relatable. It extends an invitation to a caregiver to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences more freely.
“How would you like to support the care of your family member?” Be clear with realistic expectations by clearly communicating the parameters & possibilities for family caregivers who wish to support the care of the patient
Obtain patient consent³
- Ask the patient/client for consent to share information with caregivers.
- If the patient does not give consent to share information with the family caregiver, explore the reasons with the patient, and keep asking the patient to give consent.
- Try not to ask the patient for consent with a question that requires a yes or no answer. Instead of, “Can we share information with your family?” say “Which family member can we share information about your progress with?”
- Be supportive and sensitive to the caregiver’s information needs. Discuss “no consent” with the caregiver and acknowledge the difficulty that this poses for the caregiver.
- Assure the caregiver that their loved one is “OK” and “getting appropriate treatment”.
- Offer the caregiver hope because, “The patient may have a change of mind if we wait a few days and ask again.”
Information sharing & participation: Health care providers communicate and share information with patient and families in ways that are affirming and useful. Patients and families are encouraged and supported in participating in care and decision-making at the level they choose.
- Give the family information and resources to understand the diagnosis and prognosis
- Respect the family as part of the patient care team
- Include the family in patient care and patient discharge planning
- Point out and build on the family’s strengths
- Discuss what recovery means to the family
- Educate the family about ways to support recovery
- Refer the family to a support group or family education course⁴
1] Alberta Health Services. 2014. Patient and Family Centred Care Resource Kit: How to Improve the Patient Experience at the Point of Care. Available at:
https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/assets/info/pf/pe/if-pf-pe-patient-family-centred-care-resource-kit.pdf
[2] The Change Foundation. 2019. Caregivers as Partners eLearning for Healthcare Providers. Available at : https://ontariocaregiver.ca/elearning/
[3] Changing Care website. https://embracecaregivers.com/en/provider-resources/
[4] Changing Care website. https://embracecaregivers.com/en/provider-resources/