Co-Producing Alberta’s Caregiver Strategy: Policy Pathways for Integrated Health, Social, and Community Care

Background: Family caregivers provide the backbone of Alberta’s health and social systems—offering 75–90 % of community care and 15–40 % of continuing care, valued at more than $12 billion annually. Yet they remain under-recognized and poorly supported, often without systematic assessment of their needs to both provide care and sustain their own wellbeing. As Alberta Health Services refocuses into four new provincial agencies (primary, continuing, acute, and mental health/addiction), hospitals are repositioned as part of—not the centre of—the system. Achieving this vision requires integrated policy that recognizes and supports caregivers as partners across the care continuum.

 

Aim: s and Objectives The Alberta Caregiver Strategy and Action Plan (2024–2025) aimed to co-produce an integrated framework and action plan to:

1. Recognize caregivers as essential partners in care.
2. Embed assessment of caregiver needs and wellbeing as standard practice.
3. Enable safe, informed decision-making across transitions—from home to supportive or long-term care and hospice.
4. Align policy, governance, and data infrastructure across health, social, and community systems to sustain caregivers and care recipients.

 

Highlights (Innovation, Impact, Outcomes):The Strategy was co-produced using interpretive description and collective impact frameworks. Over 52 roundtables with 372 participants, including caregivers, providers, policymakers, educators, employers, and community leaders, validated priorities across sectors. Four foundational directions emerged: recognition, partnership, needs assessment, and navigation, supported by enabling conditions in education, workplace support, policy, and research.

Stakeholders emphasized moving from hospital-centred, illness-driven care toward connected community systems. Policy priorities included:

1. Caregiver identification in records and planning (“Right now, if you look in the chart, the caregiver doesn’t exist.”)
2. Standardized caregiver needs assessment to support both caregiving capacity and wellbeing (“If you ask the caregiver at the start, you can plan supports before they burn out.”)
3. Triadic consent and shared decision-making (“We hide behind consent—when really we need shared decision-making.”)
4. Relational navigation through trusted community connectors (“A list isn’t navigation. People need someone to walk it with them.”)

Caregivers highlighted the importance of policies that support decision-making across the care trajectory—sustaining care at home, planning safe transitions, and accessing supportive living, long-term care, or hospice.

 

Conclusion: (Implications for Policy and Practice)

Alberta’s Caregiver Strategy demonstrates how provincial policy can operationalize integrated, caregiver-inclusive systems through co-production. Three lessons are transferable internationally:

1. System transformation requires caregiver assessment as standard practice, evaluating both caregiving capacity and caregiver wellbeing.
2. Governance alignment across hospital, community, and social sectors supports safe transitions and reduces crisis-driven reliance on acute care.
3. Policy backbones are essential—mandates, standards, and data systems that make caregiver recognition, partnership, and support core responsibilities rather than discretionary projects.

 

By embedding caregivers as partners in care, Alberta is reframing integration—from transactional, patient-centred encounters to relational, community-anchored systems where caregivers are visible, valued, and supported across the full care trajectory. “It takes a team to care—not just one caregiver or even one family, but a system that includes them.” — Caregiver Participant