Why now?

The human and economic consequences of caregiving affect virtually every sector of society. One in five Americans provides support to spouses, aging parents, and children with serious health problems or disabilities. Six in ten unpaid caregivers work full-time. The current shortage of direct care providers is disrupting care in both people’s homes and in nursing homes and increasing the caregiving responsibilities of unpaid caregivers. For the foreseeable future, the demand for caregiving will grow as more complex health care services are delivered in people’s homes and the availability of paid caregivers decreases. Addressing Caregiving NOW is a societal imperative.

Year 1 Accomplishments (2022-2023)

We engaged a diverse group of thought leaders in exploring solutions to the nation’s growing caregiving crisis. We held 11 webinars on a wide range of topics and published blog posts on each one. We identified the following cross-cutting themes, as described in our year 1 report:

• Increasing the visibility and awareness of caregivers
• Centering caregivers in our health care system and policies
• Supporting caregivers in the workplace
• Supporting caregivers financially
• Bolstering the direct care workforce
• Meeting caregivers’ spiritual needs
• Using technology to improve caregiving and care

We published two related journal articles:

• “Considering caregivers’ needs in Hospital at Home programs,” JAMA Health Forum, by Diana J. Mason, Mary Naylor; and Susan Reinhard, 2022.
• “Faith-based organizations can support dementia caregivers in a post-pandemic world,” Research in Nursing and Health, by Katherine Carroll Britt, Pamela Z. Cacchione, and Mary D. Naylor, 2023.

We are finalizing an umbrella review of the literature on interventions targeting caregivers of older adults that will be published in year 2. This paper aims to identify gaps in existing caregiving intervention research and to inform recommendations for large-scale implementation and evaluation of interventions demonstrated to be effective.

Year 2 Plans (2023-2024)

Our conversations with experts in Year 1 yielded insights about caregivers and the support they need. We heard about promising programs and strategies, which now inform our plans for year 2. Our goals center around the importance of linking working caregivers to important resources that can improve their well-being. We are now planning the following initiatives in that context:

• Implement an “Any Care Counts” campaign with a local employer to a) raise awareness (including self-identification) of caregiving in the workplace, and b) connect caregivers to existing local and state resources.
• Develop a white paper on financial caregiving to a) raise awareness on the need to prepare for longevity and retirement, and b) recommend ways that individuals, financial planners, employers, and society can support a more inclusive retirement ecosystem that empowers people to plan for the financial challenges they are likely to face as family caregivers.
• Hold an interactive summit with large and small employers to discuss opportunities for businesses to address employee caregivers’ needs.
• Disseminate findings on immediate and longer-term opportunities to enhance programs, services, and policies that can improve the well-being of caregivers.