OCTOBER 11,
2019 Advancing Quality | Making Healthcare Simpler
Serena Thompson, Program Director, Long Term Services & Supports
Today, one in every five American
adults serves as a caregiver, providing regular care and
support to a friend or family member with a health issue or disability. Half of
these caregivers have provided care for at least two years, and nearly a third
do so for at least 20 hours per week. A significant portion of caregivers
provide care to a parent, those with dementia and those 65 years of age and
older. These numbers are only expected to grow as 10,000
baby boomers reach retirement age every day over the next two
decades.
As more Americans take on the role of a caregiver and our
understanding of caregiver needs evolves, so has our ability to recognize gaps
that exist in this area of the healthcare industry. Anthem has been harnessing
the power of collaboration and innovation to improve caregiver supports and
address the growing needs of individual caregivers.
Anthem
Forms Diverse Caregiver Working Group
Anthem convened a diverse working group of our associates
and external stakeholders across the healthcare system to better understand the
challenges that exist for caregivers and the ways we can better support their
needs. Today, the working group consists of individuals with years of
experience in the managed care field, formal caregiving agencies, families,
caregivers and leaders across the caregiving landscape, including staff from
the National Alliance for
Caregiving. In bringing this diverse group together that sees
caregiving from a variety of perspectives, we learned that most of us have been
or anticipate being a caregiver at some point in our lives, and that caregiving
can range across a variety of circumstances, including:
- Parents of
children with disabilities;
- Adults caring for aging parents; and
- Community members and neighbors.
The
Effects of Caregiving
While the population of caregivers is diverse, all
caregivers are subject to experiencing a variety of complex effects as a result
of their role, including fatigue, financial and relationship strain, guilt,
shame, frustration, isolation and feeling constantly overwhelmed. To organize
our efforts, the working group used research, surveys, listening sessions and
other existing resources to identify and categorize the types of supports that
caregivers need into three main areas:
- Training and
Information Resources;
- Goods and Services; and
- Emotional and Social Supports.
In our discussions, it became clear that these supports
needed to be simple for the caregiver to access, to minimize any additional
time commitment and stress. While our work is ongoing, we have been pleased to
introduce several key resources already put in place or that are in development
to support caregivers.
Online
Support Services for Caregivers
We are piloting a streamlined online support platform for
our members and caregivers to simplify access to caregiver training and
resources. We have identified the resources that are most commonly accessed by
caregivers and are partnering with companies who have the capacity to use smart
assessments and evidence-based algorithms to identify the core causes of
burnout and provide targeted referrals based on those outcomes.
For example, one of our partnerships with the Alzheimer’s
Association provides access to their content and free trainings. We are
continuing to explore how we can partner with more organizations who provide
effective support services. As this work progresses, we recognize that these
resources must exist at the national level as well as the local community
level.
A
Toolkit to Address the Unique Needs of Caregivers
The working group has also developed a first-of-its-kind
Caregiver Supports Toolkit geared towards simplifying the organizational
demands on a caregiver. The toolkit brings commonly needed items together in
one central location, including medical history, prescription information,
appointment tracking and emergency contact information. These toolkit features
make it easier for a caregiver to better provide routine care, allows the
information to be available offline in the event of an emergency and can be
shared with other trusted individuals in the event the caregiver is unavailable
for any reason.
The toolkit also contains helpful tips on how to prepare for
a successful doctor’s appointment and manage various crisis scenarios, such as
natural disasters. The working group piloted the toolkit at several conferences
to collect and incorporate real-time feedback from those who would use the
toolkit before releasing the final version.
Looking ahead, we are working on a system for emotional and
social supports that offers a place for 24/7 access to dedicated caregiver
advocates. The service would provide a safe space for caregivers to connect
with someone about their experience and access additional resources, including
benefit counseling, fraud prevention and personal care tips.
At Anthem, we are bringing our partners and experts in the
field together to make healthcare simpler to navigate for caregivers. Just as
we focus on improving the health of the whole person, we are taking a holistic
approach to address and support the needs of caregivers as their role in the
healthcare system evolves. We understand that there is more work to do, and we
will continue listening and learning on this journey.
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