Abstract
Background: Family caregivers provide 70–90% of health and support services to individuals living with serious illnesses in the community, yet they remain undervalued and overlooked by health, social, and community care systems. Barriers to caregiver integration include challenges in identifying caregivers, communication and information-sharing issues, time constraints, and cultural and trust barriers. This workshop highlights successful Canadian initiatives at three levels—micro, meso, and macro—demonstrating how targeted strategies can enhance caregiver integration into care teams.
Target Audience: The workshop is designed for health and social care providers, care coordinators, policymakers, researchers, and healthcare leaders interested in implementing or improving caregiver integration practices within integrated care frameworks.
Co-Design and Engagement: A co-design approach is central to this initiative, involving family caregivers, healthcare providers, policymakers, and community organizations. Personal and Public Involvement (PPI) ensures solutions are rooted in caregivers’ real-life experiences and address their pressing needs. Caregivers participate in advisory boards, focus groups, and training development, contributing to innovations such as provider training, social prescribing, and technology integration. This collaborative process fosters more effective pathways for caregiver integration.
Overview of Initiative: The workshop showcases Canadian examples of caregiver integration across three levels of influence:
•Micro Level: Strategies for identifying, communicating, and partnering with caregivers despite time constraints. Practical solutions for recognizing caregivers' roles in care delivery and building quick, meaningful connections.
•Meso Level: Implementing social prescribing as a mechanism to integrate health, social, and community care, enabling caregivers and care recipients to access resources that support holistic care.
•Macro Level: Co-producing caregiver strategies with caregivers to achieve systemic change, shift cultural attitudes, and build trust in caregiver-provider relationships.
The session highlights practical solutions from diverse healthcare settings, offering examples adaptable to various integrated care contexts.
Question for International Colleagues: Participants are invited to share insights and successful strategies from their regions for overcoming barriers to caregiver integration, particularly addressing cultural and trust challenges, improving information-sharing, and engaging caregivers as partners.
Workshop Outline:
•5 minutes: Introduction to workshop objectives, emphasizing caregivers as care integrators and key barriers to integration.
•15 minutes: Group discussion on challenges to caregiver integration, including communication gaps, time limitations, and information-sharing barriers.
•20 minutes: Presentation of solutions:
1.Educating providers to identify and partner with caregivers.
2.Social prescribing to connect health, social, and community care.
3.Co-producing caregiver strategies to build trust and shift cultural norms.
•40 minutes: Rotating discussion groups to explore each solution, assessing applicability and impact in participants' settings.
•10 minutes: Summary of conclusions and take-home messages, highlighting actionable insights for participants.
This workshop provides a collaborative space to explore practical pathways that strengthen caregivers' roles in integrated care, fostering better outcomes for caregivers, patients, and care teams.