National Family
Caregivers Month 2018: Celebrating a Year of Accomplishment
By Lance Robertson, Administrator
and Assistant Secretary for Aging
We hear repeatedly that without family caregivers, our
long-term services system would be stretched to the breaking point. Family
caregivers make it possible for so many of our nation’s citizens to remain
independent, living in the settings of their choice.
Supporting families and family caregivers in their efforts to
assist their friends and loved ones is at the very core of the mission of
the Administration for Community Living. That gives us a tremendous opportunity
to advance how we think about supporting families that include older adults
who need assistance in their later years, people with disabilities at every
stage of their lives, or both. We also have the opportunity to make a real
difference in the lives of real people, through programs that provide
support to families and caregivers.
Every November, we stop to recognize and thank family
caregivers for all they do on behalf of their loved ones. This year, I
think we have even more reason to be thankful, to celebrate family
caregivers, and to be optimistic for the future of family caregiver
support.
Earlier this year, we saw two key pieces of legislation signed
into law, both of which will help to strengthen our ability to support
family caregivers. The Recognize,
Assist, Include, Support, and Engage (RAISE) Family Caregivers Act
was signed in January, and ultimately will help establish a national
strategy to better support families. The Supporting
Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Act became law in July, and
will for the first time, focus national attention on better understanding
the complex needs of grandparents and other older relatives who are caring
for children and help to make information about promising practices and
programs more accessible for these special families.
I am excited that ACL will be leading the Department of Health
and Human Services’ work to implement these two important initiatives. Both
fit perfectly with ACL’s commitment to supporting families and family
caregivers. They offer valuable opportunities for federal agencies to come
together in support of family caregivers, including grandparents and older
relatives and build on ongoing and new initiatives to support families and
family caregivers. We are currently accepting nominations to serve on the
advisory councils these laws established, and we are looking forward to the
work we will do together beginning in the new year.
There are other initiatives to celebrate, as well. In
September, ACL awarded a new cooperative agreement to the Alzheimer’s
Association to begin working on strategies and supports to bolster the
financial literacy and preparedness of family caregivers. Earlier this
month, ACL launched the redesigned Eldercare
Locator web site, which feature a new Caregiver Corner complete
with updated resources and information for family caregivers.
We also now know more about the programs we administer and the
people we serve through National Family Caregiver Support Program funded
through the Older Americans Act. ACL just completed a multi-year project to
examine how the program is designed and administered at the state, local
and provider levels and how it impacts family caregivers. We previewed the
results at a webinar on November 28th, and we’ll be sharing the complete
report soon. We anticipate learning more about service use and impacts,
caregiver needs and preferences, and recommendations for the aging services
network as it looks to build upon proven success in administering the program.
Similarly, we are evaluating the work done through the
“Supporting Families Communities of Practice” initiative, which ACL funded
for five years. This program was designed to build capacity across and
within states to create policies, practices, and systems to better assist
and support families that include people with intellectual and
developmental disabilities, across the lifespan. We’ve seen good results
from this work, with many states and communities adopting promising
practices, such as the use of the LifeCourse
Framework developed by the University of Missouri – Kansas City
Institute for Human Development, which is one of the University Centers for
Excellence in Developmental Disabilities funded by ACL.
We look forward to sharing the results of the evaluation,
which will help us better understand the results from the project and which
will inform our future work in supporting families.
I am confident in our capacity to be there to support families
and family caregivers in meaningful and lasting ways. As 2018 National
Family Caregivers Month comes to a close and as we continue to celebrate
this season of thanks, I am grateful for the opportunities we have every
day to make a difference in the lives of these amazing individuals, and
appreciate our partners in the aging and disability networks who make that
work possible.
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