JAMA Article: As the US Ages, A Growing Movement Aims to Care for Caregivers
JAMA has published a Medical News article, "As the US Ages, A Growing Movement Aims to Care for Caregivers," that discusses new efforts to support caregivers of older adults in the US, including health system initiatives and federal actions.
The author, Virginia Hunt, notes that the number of unpaid family caregivers supporting older adults rose from 18.2 million to 24.1 million between 2011 and 2022. “While caregiving is deeply personal, it is a societal issue that requires a collective response,” Snyder [Rani Snyder, MPA, acting president and vice president of The John A. Hartford Foundation] said. “Without better proactive caregiver support, we risk higher costs to our health care system, greater strain on safety net programs, and lost economic productivity across sectors.”
The article describes what has changed in caregiving - such as the time requirement of caregiving, breadth of health conditions, and tasking caregivers with operating complex medical equipment - and talks about the Caring for Caregivers (C4C) model at Rush University’s health system. This model shows improved outcomes for both caregivers and care recipients, "marking it as a promising intervention for the expanding population...The model 'fits beautifully' [notes Ellen Carbonell] with the 4Ms of the Age-Friendly Health System."
The future of federal support is also explored. “People don’t understand the extent to which Medicaid helps and supports family caregivers who then help and support the people they’re caring [for],” Snyder said. The author notes that various groups have reaffirmed their commitment to advocacy, including AARP. This commitment, she writes, is shared by Rani Snyder who is “keeping a laser focus on older people and their caregivers.”
Read the JAMA article.
Learn more about the C4C model.
Learn more about the Age-Friendly Health Systems (AFHS) initiative.
Learn more about JAHF's co-support of the AFHS initiative and of the C4C model.
