Family Support Dialogue Browse Random ideas

If a caregiver is providing care, allow them to have a tax credit, for the sheer savings to the tax paying public of not having medicaid bear the costs of giving care. In the past 5 years, as a caregiver, I have saved taxpayers thousands and thousands of dollars by providing care to an elderly family member, versus relying on the government to care for the individual. Give credit where credit is due.

As a new generation of individuals with autism comes of age, I would like to see research regarding mentoring programs for teens and young adults with ASD. How can we promote mentoring programs within the autism community? How can we work to establish positive role models for youngsters with ASD? What kind of training and support is needed to make these programs effective?

Establish community-level "visitability" equipment loan programs so caregivers can borrow portable ramps,lifts, grab bars &c in order to increase options for family members to visit other inaccessible homes of friends and family

For many families, caregiving can have a negative financial impact. Some of this is unavoidable, but some can be ameliorated. People need more information and more options to help finance supportive services that help both the caregiver and their loved ones.

The most important thing for caregivers, and the family members we/they care for, is an occasional break so we can have social interaction outside the home. To take a break we need backup assistance from time-to-time that we can count on. Independent Living Centers (CILs?) have provided no assistance in this regard. Shouldn't that be one of their core functions? What do CILs do--just advocacy?

At any rate, we need... more »

As caregivers, our family members couldn't always be available to attend medical appointments along with our parents. We all lived out of town or out of state. Our parents had some memory loss, so they couldn't always understand the information from the medical providers, nor relay the information to us after an appointment. We would have appreciated a service where we could hire someone to attend the medical appointments... more »

Approximately 10-15% of children who attend child care programs have either medical, behavioral or developmental needs requiring the transfer of information from professionals (doctors, therapists) to their caregivers in lay language. Is this being done successfully? Pitfalls?

Physical burden of care might be lessened by improving the design of transfer and patient handling equipment. Up until now, deficits in the design of such equipment has been borne by care recipients and caregivers. If patients fell, or declined in function, they simply became an inpatient. Now, there is value at reducing unnecessary hazards in home care and optimizing patient function. At the same time, embed patient... more »

One area of support I find families need is how to navigate the grieving process. Some families are aware of where they are emotionally regarding their loved one and some do not seem to be aware at all, or are very good at hiding it. As a provider, I would like more information/resources/etc on how to help a family in the grief process so that they can manage their feelings as well as provide the necessary support to... more »

High end resources are well marketed. Those who need free or low cost options often are unable to identify them. Social workers in the community are mostly unaware of faith based and small grant and/or institutional services. How can this information be better understood by caregivers and those who advise them?

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Respite is often the most frequently requested family support service. However, according to the ARCH/ACL Expert Panel on Respite Research, which will be issuing respite research recommendations this summer, high quality research on respite outcomes for the family caregiver, the care recipient and the family as a whole, including cost benefits, is limited and often fraught with methodological problems. More and better... more »

Caregiving results in an overall cost to business of $33.6 billion per year due to absenteeism, supervisory time, unpaid leave, and reduced hours. Family caregiving is also estimated to add another $13.4 billion or an 8% differential to healthcare business costs. How do we convince companies to provide resources to help their employees manage their jobs and their caregiving responsibilities?

When 2 people are sick sometimes they could use cleaning help. Also someone to talk to about how they feel. It would be fun to do an outing with others. Friends don't always understand you don't always want to talk disabilities. Sometimes you want to talk abilities.

Establish training programs and credentials to prepare benefits planners to serve caregivers and PWDs from low and middle income families