Integrating Family Care Partners in Aged Caregiving in the United States

Integrating Family Care Partners in Aged Caregiving in the United States addresses the siloed nature of family caregiving in relation to formal paid caregiving, and the imperative that family caregivers or care partners must be integrated in the care of older adults and people living with disabilities. Knowledgeable care partners are crucial to optimal health and social care delivery. After defining the problems of demographic shifts and financing constraints, this book explores practices and policies that promote care partner integration. This emerging paradigm positions family care partners as integral members of wider long-term services and supports (LTSS) in the United States, recognizing them not only as participants but also as authorities in the lived experience of care work. To improve LTSS for older and disabled adults, two key changes are necessary: better recognition of care partners, and integration of their efforts into formal care systems currently falling short of meeting the holistic needs of care recipients. Select chapters outline non-US strategies employed around the globe to tackle challenges referred to in that chapter. This book will be of interest to all scholars, students, and professionals in social work, health administration, public health, nursing, medicine, public policy, and public administration.

Nathan A. Boucher, DrPH is Associate Research Professor in Public Policy as well as Nursing, and Associate Professor in Geriatrics & Palliative Care as well as Population Health Sciences at Duke University (USA). He is also a health systems research scientist in the largest integrated healthcare system in the United States, the Veterans Health Administration.

1.The Toughest Job 2.Who Are the Carers? 3.Policy and Process Involving Care Partners 4.Crisis Within Crisis: Our Aging Care Partners 5.How Do We Support Care Partners? 6.Ethics of Care Partner Inclusion 7.Shifting to "Care Partner" 8.Unique Care Populations 9.Care Partner: Nexus of Health Care and Social Care