Thursday, June 11th, 2020
Understand How Your Community Can Better Support Family Caregivers The Caregiver Friendly Communities Assessment is an online tool that seeks to measure how well a community (city, township, village or county) supports informal or family caregivers (people who provide unpaid care to an aging or chronically ill parent, grandparent, sibling, spouse, partner or other loved one). Once you complete the online assessment, you’ll receive a custom report containing a caregiver-friendliness score with ...
Continue ReadingWednesday, November 4th, 2020
Best Practices: Caregiver Social & Emotional Support Social and emotional supports provide needed outlets to share the struggles of caregiving with others who understand the challenges – these supports can be tremendously helpful in providing strength and support to help caregivers continue in their role. In a study of 246 caregivers 45% indicated that emotional support was one of the top caregiver needs (Black, 2013). “The demanding work of caregiving can put ...
Continue ReadingWednesday, November 4th, 2020
Best Practices: Caregiver Training & Education Training and education for caregivers has been found to be tremendously helpful in providing information to both help care for loved ones while also making sure caregivers are taking care of themselves. Numerous research studies have shown that training can be effective in reducing caregiver stress, anxiety, and help the caregiver develop a better relationship with the care recipient. Specifically, support interventions with caregivers can ...
Continue ReadingWednesday, November 4th, 2020
Best Practices: Housing Many homes today are not designed for aging safely – they may involve stairs, have thresholds which are hard to cross by wheelchair and walker, have bathrooms without zero-entry showers, benches, or grab-rails. Some communities provide assistance to update older homes and apartments for safe and easier aging. For caregivers, the home environment can be a critical support or challenge in providing good care – sometimes this includes ...
Continue ReadingWednesday, November 4th, 2020
Best Practices: Transportation Transportation continues to be one of the top-rated concerns among both caregivers and older adults. Access to affordable transportation that accommodates mobility differences is paramount. Older adults who are no longer able to drive rely on informal support systems to meet their needs. Lack of effective transportation correlates to a higher level of reported depressive symptoms. These effects disproportionately affect marginalized populations. In one study contrasting former drivers with ...
Continue ReadingWednesday, November 4th, 2020
Best Practices: Healthcare Services Health Care services may be argued as the most important service needed for care recipients. For caregivers, however, there are specific services and practices in health care that provide optimum support to the caregiver. The Caregiver Friendly Communities Assessment scores on three factors in this section: Hospital Services Outpatient Services Pharmacy Expand the categories below to find the scoring factors and recommended practices for each. You can also download ...
Continue ReadingWednesday, November 4th, 2020
Best Practices: Financial and Legal Support Caregivers are frequently saddled with a complicated array of financial and legal decisions to make in collaboration with or on behalf of their loved ones – from figuring out how to pay for needed healthcare and homecare services to making decisions about their loved ones’ futures. It includes important decisions about their own financial health too – such as a decision about whether to quit ...
Continue ReadingWednesday, November 4th, 2020
Best Practices: Care Management Services Caregivers frequently cite challenges in managing their loved ones’ healthcare – including the coordination of in-home nursing and other in-home help, managing prescription medications, coordinating appointments and transportation for doctor visits, and finding information about the specific illness that loved ones are being affected by and its implications for caregiving responsibilities. The Caregiver Friendly Communities Assessment scores this domain in two ways: Assessing hospital discharge care transition ...
Continue ReadingWednesday, November 4th, 2020
Best Practices: In-Home Care and Respite Services Services such as in-home care and, especially in-home respite services, are two of the top supports cited by caregivers as most beneficial in their ability to continue to provide good care for a loved one. Caregivers are frequently the only people caring for their loved ones and may be doing it in addition to caring for a child, a spouse, and/or working a full-time ...
Continue ReadingMonday, August 29th, 2016
Studies on Issues of Importance to Older Adults The AgeWays Nonprofit Senior Services' Advisory Council often conducts studies on issues of relevance to seniors, adults with disabilities and caregivers. Below are reports on these studies along with interesting studies and reports from other groups. Surveys of Needs of Those 60 and Over by County Needs Assessment Data: Livingston County Older Adults Needs Assessment Data: Macomb County Older Adults Needs Assessment Data: Monroe County Older Adults Needs ...
Continue Reading
AgeWays Central Office
29100 Northwestern Hwy.,
Suite 400
Southfield, MI 48034
TTY: (800) 649-3777 (Michigan Relay)
Fax: (248) 262-9971
