Making Family Caregiving Visible - 2023 09 28

 


It is not difficult to identify the onset of family caregiving work. It occurs the moment there is another person in the room with the health provider because the patient about to be discharged cannot fend for themselves. 

In this moment, the family caregiver is taking on work that is not quantified, supervised, or traceable. This work is not accounted or planned as part of the overall infrastructure of the health system. The fact is that if that family caregiver was not in the room to receive discharge and care instructions, the patient they are discharging would be back in the institution in short order.

We know there is work being assigned because the family caregiver is given instructions on specific medical, therapeutic or health tasks essential to positive outcomes for the patient.

Essentially, there is a transfer of patient care and in that moment, there is currently no organizational or systemic trigger that ensures sufficient transfer protocols include the work being taken on by the family caregiver and their existing household.

The triggering mechanism is simple to identify. Who is receiving the care instructions to be fulfilled after the patient gets home?

It is this transfer of care that is invisible to the healthcare system and is causing such devastation in the lives of family caregivers.

It is in this moment that we can effect the greatest change.

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