[Seniorresources] Caregiver Resources

[Sally Camp]

Caregiver Assessment: Principles, Guidelines, and Strategies for Change
(vol. I), 43 pp., including appendices, and Caregiver Assessment: Voices
and Views from the Field (vol. II), 109 pp., National Center on
Caregiving at the Family Caregiver Alliance (FCA), April 2006,
http://caregiver.org/caregiver/jsp/content_node.jsp?nodeid=1630. Both
volumes are also available in hard copy at a charge of $25 each by
sending payment to the FCA, 180 Montgomery St., Suite 1100, San
Francisco, CA 94104. 

This two-volume report "states that a fundamental change of thinking in
policy and practice is needed to establish" caregiver assessment "as a
basic component of practice across care settings," according to a press
release. Families provide about 80 percent of the long-term care (LTC)
in the United States, the FCA states. 

According to Volume I, "Research shows that family members who provide
care to [relatives] with chronic or disabling conditions are themselves
at risk for physical, emotional and financial problems" related to their
caregiving roles. Assessing the needs of "family caregivers"-synonymous
with "informal caregivers" and including family and friends providing
assistance-is important because the fallout from these problems "can
impede the caregiver's ability to provide care, lead to higher health
care costs, and affect their quality of life and those for whom they
care," the first volume's overview says. Volume I stems from a September
2005 "consensus development conference" at which fifty-four experts on
this topic, including "scholars, practitioners and public officials,"
met. 

Volume II contains background papers for the conference, including
"Assessment of Family Caregivers: A Public Policy Perspective" by Katie
Maslow of the Alzheimer's Association, Carol Levine of the United
Hospital Fund of New York, and Susan Reinhard of the Rutgers Center on
Health Policy. The volume also includes "Notes from the Edge of the
Abyss," by Levine, a caregiver herself.

 

 

Sally Camp 
Services Coordination Project 
Senior Connections 
24 E. Cary Street 
Richmond, VA 23219 
804-343-3058 
scamp at youraaa.org 

 

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