Caregiver Services and Supports

Research shows that nearly 90 percent of people aged 65 and older want to age in their homes and communities. But to do so, many older adults and people with disabilities rely on family caregivers for necessary support, with one-third of caregivers providing 20 or more hours per week of care. In fact, recent estimates indicate the value of unpaid caregiving has now reached $600 billion annually. Unpaid family caregivers provide a wide range of services, including transportation, food preparation, housekeeping and personal care. These and other services enable care recipients to remain living where they wish—at home and in the community— with dignity and independence.

The number of people needing care and consequently the number of caregivers is only expected to increase as the population ages and more people live longer with chronic illness and disabilities. The breadth and complexity of the family caregiving landscape is also expanding as the nation’s population becomes more diverse requiring new definitions of “family” and “kinship,” responding to rich cultural and linguistic norms and new strategies to assist in caregiving transitions over the life course. Caregivers need help at the right time, in the right place by the appropriately trained staff and volunteers to help them navigate the complex system of services that can support them in their caregiving journey.

With funding from the U.S. Administration for Community Living (ACL), for a four-year cooperative agreement, USAging and its funded partners will work to expand and enhance the capacity of the Aging Network to strengthen and spur innovation in the development and implementation of person and family-centered services and supports that meet the diverse needs of the nation’s caregivers.

Key Project Activities and Objectives

• Develop a Caregiver Services and Supports Collaborative Leadership Team;
• Launch an Aging Network Caregiver Services and Supports Innovations Hub;
• Develop a Caregiver Services and Supports Action Guide Series;
• Launch pilot sites to spur innovation;
• Conduct Caregiver Services and Supports Conference Summits and Virtual Symposia;
• Launch a Caregiver Champion Collaborative; and
• Develop strategies to collect data to measure impact and outcomes of caregiver services and supports.

 USAging’s funded partners in this initiative include:

• Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving (RCI)
• Family Caregiver Alliance (FCA)
• National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC)
• ADvancing States
• National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs (NANASP)
• ARCH National Respite Network and Resource Center
• Generations United
• Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA)

Additionally, Subject Matter Experts from the following organizations will serve as advisors, guide and shape the work and provide input on key activities to inform and advance the project. 

• AARP Foundation
• Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)
• Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging
• Creating Healthy Communities
• National Adult Day Services Association (NADSA)
• National Association of Council on Developmental Disabilities (NACDD)
• National Council on Aging – National Institute on Senior Centers (NCOA-NISC)
• National Indian Council on Aging (NICOA)
• PHI
• Rush University Medical Center
• SAGE
• Western New York Integrated Care Collaborative, Inc.

This project is supported by the Administration for Community Living (ACL), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial award totaling $4,400,000 with 75 percentage funded by ACL/HHS and $1,476,288 amount and 25 percentage funded by non-government source(s). The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by ACL/HHS, or the U.S. Government. 

Project Lead
Meredith Hanley, Director