Caregiving?Absolutely!

Long term care is too costly and unsustainable without unpaid family caregivers.  Yet governments rely on them now,  and twenty years to come, ignoring long recognized personal detriments borne from unpaid, unregulated work of unknown duration and ill-defined definition.

Caregiving?Absolutely!’s first deliverable, “Prepare to Care Kit” (KIT), will be a collection of fully vetted and tested long term care planning guides and tools.  Caregivers will know when to prepare for what specific activities and how these activities will be funded and have knowledge of options for maximizing existing funds or seeking external funding leveraging information on hand.  Increased competency, time, emotional and financial resources will maintain well-being and avoid or stave off more costly care settings.

New offerings will include tutorials, surveys, mentoring-, consulting-, training services among other customer-driven solutions on a web-based platform that foster collaboration and advocacy.

World-wide long term care services are not sustainable without support from unpaid family caregivers.

Within the US, many are living longer, acquiring chronic and disabling conditions preferring to receive care at home due to the high cost and poor quality of alternative settings and lack of knowledge of cost and planning.  However caregivers, disproportionately female,  report hardship to the dyad (collectively, care receiver and family caregiver) in obtaining services (26%) or in affording necessary services (25%) while family caregivers experience negative impacts to their social, physical and economic well-being.  Existing services and supports, when they are available or affordable, do not address the non-care aspects of caregiving.  Many caregivers are suffer financial consequences, with long-lasting repercussions, as they reduce or forgo employment and use their funds to subsidize the care of their loved one.

Funding and solutions lag, relying on altruism under intolerable conditions.  Pandemic-driven solutions addressed some long-needed dyad solutions.

Caregiving Absolutely first product, a “Prepare to Care Kit” aims at attracting caregivers to a unifying platform, with an initial pragmatic offering that raises awareness, choice, and ways to manage,   giving agency to the role and empowering the caregiver to make sound decisions.

Caregiving Absolutely first product, a “Prepare to Care Kit”,  will prepare the caregiver —through guided, structured and customizable tools — for the non-caring aspects of caregiving throughout the care continuum, giving agency to the role and empowering the caregiver to make sound decisions.

Additional offerings will include tutorials, surveys, mentoring-, consulting-, training services among other customer-driven solutions on a web-based platform that foster collaboration and advocacy.

Offerings are hosted on web-site designed to foster collaboration among caregivers and organizations in a community forum, aimed at facilitating knowledge adoption, promoting prevention through planning, driving customer-based solutions as well as providing information, tools and best practices that enhance role-based performance and well-being, and guide caregiving throughout the care continuum.

Solution innovators and problem solvers can survey obtain non-identifiable caregiver data and preferences to design customer-driven and -vetted solutions.

Caregiving?Absolutely! will target and serve two populations:  Caregivers and Solvers directly, with indirect beneficiaries being care receivers (increased quality of care and likelihood of place of care), government (decrease costs with proper utilization), non-profits (more services to maintain or grow members), innovators and researchers (defined location to obtain information, develop solutions based on need and approval, and measure outcomes), and caregivers (solutions that meet their needs and improve well-being)

Caregivers are so undeserved, that federal legislation (RAISE Family Caregivers Act) calls for an integrated caregiving strategic plan, placing solutions within all segments of community.  States have varying degrees of success of engaging and meeting caregiver needs.

CAREGIVERS

“Prepare to Care Kit” (KIT) will address the  interdependencies to care and well-bing in one deliverable, hosted on a platform that will provide value to caregivers with vetted offerings and existing best practices.

After proof-of-concept affirmation, the KIT will engage caregivers in iterative development, while following a select few throughout all stages to ensure appropriate content and usability.  Services will be offered at point-of-service entry point organizations (e.g., local area on aging and disability, disease-specific, social workers, caregiving training sites).  All iterations will measure before/after usage and early iterations will include observation while later development will accompany (and measure effectiveness) of on-line training.  The KIT will assist caregivers to “plan care and well-being skillfully and resourcefully”.

Implementation will bring caregivers to the Caregiving?Absolutely! platform, which underwent usability and performance testing during the development phase and contains downloadable documents and user-instruction videos as well as FAQs and feedback for improvement.

Solutions provided on this site will be vetted or best practices intended to improve well-being and enable meeting care goals.  The caregivers platform will link to a universe of sites, but provide caregivers with culled information of “best of breed” based upon criteria defined by a collaborative board, establishing itself as a community “GO TO” site for “Caregivers’ approved solutions to advance care and well-bieng skillfully and resourcefully.”

SOLVERS and RESEARCHERS

Qualified entities interested in gathering non-identifiable information from self-subscribing members will have a community “GO TO” site from which to conduct surveys.

ADVOCACY

All collaborators will be aware of solutions in other communities for adoption or adaption, and needs within their own community for prioritization.

Long term care service providers, profit or membership oriented, may offer families over-utilization or costly services, if accessed, could undermine long-term goals and well-being.

The immediate goal, “Prepare Care and Well-being Skillfully and Resourcefully”, is achieved from using the KIT’s three Guides and half-dozen tools, all designed to elevate definitions, concepts, choices, thus reducing unknowns and related stress.  As a result, and given that financial health is an important, independent social determinant of health [1. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0233359 ], the KIT is one solution in meeting the long term goal of empowering family caregivers to agency and autonomy.

Stage is in-between Concept and Prototype.  Products of three guides and half-dozen tools have been developed.  There exists a void for "non-caring" training as well as an easy access point to reach out to caregivers. 

The KIT is an “instance” of potential deliverables outlined in a paper I authored based upon research:  “PREPARING FAMILY CAREGIVERS THROUGHOUT THE CARE CONTINUUM FRAMEWORK”.

Designed from personal experience and use, the concept, such as  "non-caring" training and gaps that address unmet solutions to reduce stress and increase empowerment met with approval from a few stakeholders -- state, community organizations, others.

Energy has been split between concept and product, realizing a value-impact deliverable is essential to gain endorsement and possibly willing partners.  The next two months will involve shoring up concept.

Caregiving?Absolutely! places the caregiver at the center of service delivery instead of at the end, serving solutions and advocacy for caregivers and a platform of contacts and partners for solvers and researchers.  

Its first deliverable provides useful concepts and tools to fulfill a customer need, creating a beachhead.  Creating a platform where they can be identified, surveyed or measured, is a catalyst for more solutions.  It took the pandemic to disrupt traditional long desired modes that met caregiving needs (training, health visits, support groups, employment virtual options). 

Moving caregivers from unidentifiable, unreachable silos into a community entity can be a catalyst for more meaningful changes through technology applications.  Some examples: 

•  geo-spacial mapping (leverage location and economies of scale for solutions, e.g. transportation; healthy homes); 
• predictive modeling (data to secure appropriate and timely spending for proper utilization);
• location-based or needs-based services, based on an “uber” type model with one application and on-demand service request; 
• AI diagnostics and patient health records for home care;
• integrated apps on appropriate platforms (e.g., interconenctive health record)

Year 0-1:  Identify ten to 20 caregivers to follow for five years.  They will be selected based upon factors that promote depth and breadth of product review and developments.

Year 1-2:  Grow from 250 at end of year 1 in selected Manchester venues to 2000 at end of year 2 in greater Manchester area and two rural locations.

Year 3-5:  Minimal change to initial offering as it is implemented state-wide.

1.  Pre-exposure and post-exposure self-assessment questionnaires will be used to measure role and concepts awareness.

2.  Client questions and feedback suggestions will be used to measure usability and completeness of KIT content and ability to manage risk and resources.

3.  Focus group will be followed throughout the five years to observe in-depth insight of what tools are used to what extent thought various stages of caregiving.  Some measures will be: Were target care goals met; to what degree did the KIT aid or hinder; did caregiver maintain well-being vs those not using the KIT?

4.  Did partner organizations engage in training or assisting in GUIDE definitions?

As of mid-April 2021 I am exploring setting up a nonprofit.  Currently, I am the only person on the solution team.

Proven Experience

I took the initiative in bringing process improvement into the software development lifecycle within the VA OI&T.  From readings to ASQ accreditation, I gained support from an internal sponsor for proof-of-concept, received funding for a regional presence with team of 4, which eventually was adopted nationally, in breadth and scope.

Lived Experience

I have been a caregiver for seven years, immersed in a new body of knowledge, from which I developed a framework “ PREPARING FAMILY CAREGIVERS THROUGHOUT THE CARE CONTINUUM “.  The Framework is intended to facilitate subsequent work products that either promote, introduce, or improve the caregivers’ knowledge, skills, abilities, or supports by providing specifically designed tools, training, and information.   The primary audience are those who wish to fill in gaps for caregivers — organizations, agencies, businesses, or caregivers, themselves.

I am implementing an instance of the framework.

TeamWork

I continued with project management, which involved identifying resources and working with various customer groups:  stakeholders, subject matter experts, direct users, and line managers.  Project involved delivering product within scope and on time, and setting expectations along the way.  It also involved establishing teams, team work, roles identification and a common objective.

TEAM

The team will involve gradual formations.  Core programs will be:  

Executive Lead; Solution Development;  Liaison Development;  Training & Implementation; Consulting & Mentoring Services

In building past diverse teams I focused on what skills and traits were important and did not limit criteria within an existing field, but valued skills that were transferrable.

When managing various “office” cultures or government vs. contract cultures, I focused the team on roles, objectives, and shared team vision and inclusion values that the team defined.

Personally, I place a high value on ethics and operating ethically.  Without equity there is no ethically.  Incorporating ethics and DEI makes any business stronger and richer.

Awareness of financial illiteracy is important, so I expect to be establishing contacts within the community as I pilot test the financial deliverables, targeting   diverse income households in order toto drive more inclusive solutions.

I hope to draw upon the relationships I build to reach out within the community.

I am seeking as much assistance in building a strong foundation for the organization.  In general:

• Access mentorship, coaching, and strategic advice from experts, as well as the Solve and MIT networks; 
• Receive a monitoring and evaluation track to support you in building your impact measurement practice; 
• Gain exposure in the media and at conferences;
• Access relevant in-kind resources such as software licenses and legal services from Solve Member and partner organizations. 
• Receive access to funding in grants and investments, including through prizes and Solve Innovation Future;
• Networking

Specifically:

LEGAL -- non-profit and business sponsorships -- tax implications

FINANCIAL-- Liaison Development: Advisory on reviewing assumptions; Raising funds/revenues; Measuring value (data/metrics); 

Monitor and Evaluation:  Member enrollment criteria (caregivers vs anyone, etc.); Metrics, if realistic, to demonstrate value to government

PR:  Brand logo design

TECHNOLOGY: -- Web site tool development (dependent on Liaison development advice); -- Document design -- "sizzle", spreadsheet ease of use

LEGAL-- non-profit and business sponsorships -- tax implications

FINANCIAL-- Liaison Development: Advisory on reviewing assumptions; Raising funds/revenues; Measuring value (data/metrics); 

Monitor and Evaluation:  Member enrollment criteria (caregivers vs anyone, etc.); Metrics, if realistic, to demonstrate value to government

PR:  Brand logo design

TECHNOLOGY: -- Web site tool development (dependent on Liaison development advice); -- Document design -- "sizzle", spreadsheet ease of use

I would like to be sure I am accessing the correct organizations with the proper incentives.

I would like to partner with organizations that could amplify the deliverables Caregiving?Absolutely! provides in their training and organizations that either identify caregivers or to whom caregivers approach for assistance.

Training orgs could be Easter Seals, Alzheimers Association, and other disease organizations.

Caregiver identification orgs is ServiceLink in NH (local area for aging and disability resource center) and doctor offices.

I also want to learn the incentives and disincentives of non-profits.  I have a business background, and successfully managed some large projects on budget and on time within scope.

While inputting my data I did have an encouraging call with a manager within a NH Alzheimer's Association. She offered to review my deliverable and to engage two former caregivers who could provide another layer of review, realizing the deliverable has to be sound on the first outing for any chance of success moving forward with promotion of the deliverable, training to their members and word of mouth to other organizations. 

Caregiving?Absolutely! is a solution that  is for caregivers by caregivers.  Typically caregivers are women, in household earnings of $50,000 or less.  Caregiving impacts the caregiver well-being.  While Caregiving?Absolutely! will strive for best practice solutions, having solutions, vetted by caregivers, to refine and improve is the necessary first step.  Having a "convening" site that specifically advances practical best practices for caregivers helps caregivers, care recipients, government, and society.

I would use the money to stand up staff in the Revenue generating teams:  2 for Liaison Development and 2 for Consulting/Mentoring/Improving at $37,500 each).  I will not accept any funding for my salary.

I am not sure if I qualify.

While my solution is US based, I am accustomed to working with virtual teams.  Web site, technical documentation, other solution R&D, implementation and training are skills that a virtual team could provide.

Award would be applied to a refugee solution developer, technical design

GUIDE TechWriting stylize (15h$50)

$750

TOOLS Tech Writing (10*3*50)

$1,500

Site Development

$2,000

Site Add On Features (Security; Translator)

$1,000

Site Customizable user-add promos

$500

Caregiving?Absolutely! is a solution that  is for caregivers by caregivers.  Typically caregivers are women, in household earnings of $50,000 or less.  Caregiving impacts the caregiver well-being.  While Caregiving?Absolutely! will strive for best practice solutions, having solutions, vetted by caregivers, to refine and improve is the necessary first step.  Having a "convening" site that specifically advances practical best practices for caregivers helps caregivers, care recipients, government, and society.

I would use the money to partially staff the solution development and implementation and training teams, as funding supports at a scaled salary.   I will not accept any funding for my salary.