The vision for this blog is to create a community of harmonious professionals across the care continuum who encourage each other in exploring digital media as a way to support businesses and families dealing with elder care.
Written on April 6th, 2011 by tasha
I was recently doing some research on adherence and ran across this “old friend,” a favorite study (Bogardus and colleagues, 2004) that demonstrated the value of getting the family caregiver on board.
We all know that non-adherence is a big issue in elder care. This was formerly referred to as “non-compliance,” but the term smacked of paternalism and has since been replaced with “non-adherence,” recognizing that the patient’s role is much more active than that of a compliant servant to the whims of medicine.
This Yale University study was conducted with 176 patient/family caregiver dyads at a geriatric assessment center. The focus was to specifically understand the family caregiver’s impact on adherence and presumably outcomes over the course of a year. Patient/family dyads went through the clinic’s standard assessment procedure, after which the family caregiver was asked to participate in a phone interview a week later and then a year later.
Written on February 7th, 2011 by tasha
A survey of 1000 family caregivers of persons over 65 further underscored the monetary impact of caregiving on families:
For more on this study, check out Caring.com.
Despite the hardships, 75% of these family caregivers also said that providing care was a source of pride because they were able to make a difference in someone’s life. This is directly in line with the research findings of Susan Folkman (of Lazarus and Folkman, stress and coping fame) who noted that the negatives and positives of caregiving exist simultaneously in the individual’s experience.
What are you encountering in your dealings with families?
Written on February 2nd, 2011 by tasha
Over the next two weeks we are running a series on family caregiver receptivity to technology solutions.
Check out our factoids on Facebook and subscribe to our periodic e-notes to receive my full analysis of a report on family caregivers and technology released by the National Alliance for Caregiving. Based on the online responses of 1000 technology-using family caregivers, the report looks at their interest and perceived barriers to 12 different categories of technology that could help with caregiving activities:
I was surprised at some of the results. I have worked with family caregivers over the last 15 years and was not aware of some of the misconceptions they seem to hold about technology. And I was in some ways surprised to discover who was most receptive to hi tech solutions. Read the rest of this entry »
Written on November 3rd, 2010 by tasha
I have just returned from the Western Region Conference of the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers. Great speakers and great insights! I had the pleasure of connecting with Viki Kind, MA, a bioethicist, medical educator and fellow hospice volunteer. She’s a data gal, like me, so we have that in common as well.
Viki is the author of Caregiver’s Path to Compassionate Decision Making, a thoughtful and heartfelt book that makes bioethics understandable “for the rest of us.” In very accessible language, she walks through the steps of resolving those frequently heart-rending decisions families face when a loved one is not capable of deciding for themselves due to dementia, mental illness, or developmental delays. She has such a human, and often humorous, way of conveying complicated concepts, that I have invited her to be a guest blogger and share her insights about helping a family make decisions regarding life support, in this case CPR.
Enjoy her post!
Read the rest of this entry »
Written on October 5th, 2010 by tasha
My own nearby city of San Francisco is the host to the National PACE Association conference this year. I am currently writing from the gorgeous Hyatt Regency with a twinkly city view before me. Exhausting day, as it often is at a conference. So much information and so many inspired people to learn from! But this one gives me a special kind of optimism because the PACE model is so, well, all-inclusive.
PACE stands for Program for All-Inclusive Care of the Elderly. One way to describe it is hospice for frail elders who are not terminally ill, but who meet the criteria for nursing home placement.
Like hospice, the PACE model revolves around an inter-disciplinary team (IDT) and includes family members in their services. The professional side of the team involves doctors, nurses, social workers, physical therapists—even dentists! Some PACE programs have chaplains as well. Read the rest of this entry »
