Giving Compass' Take:

• Insights from the Family Caregiver Navigation project can be applied broadly in efforts to support family caregiving. 

• How can this learning advance your philanthropic efforts? How can you effectively support family caregiving in your community? 

• Read about why family caregiving matters for paid family and medical leave. 

Supporting family caregivers is an important driver in achieving stronger patient health outcomes and is a key recommendation of the National Academies study, Families Caring for an Aging America, and the California Task Force on Family Caregiving. In Central California, the presence of a supported and engaged family caregiver is demonstrating results for both patients and caregivers. In 2019, Ventura County Community Foundation (VCCF) and the Hospital Association of Southern California partnered to address caregiver concerns through the Family Caregiver Navigation project. Based on an initial pilot project at Dignity Health in Santa Maria, a Caregiver Navigation Toolkit was developed as a guide to scale the work in hospitals across Ventura County. The objective of the program is to identify and integrate family caregivers as part of the healthcare team by providing targeted support and education to the caregiver and enhancing the ability of healthcare professionals to work with caregivers. Initial results have demonstrated that this intervention reduces hospital readmissions, emergency room visits and caregiver burden.

Read the full article about family caregiving by Emily Baransy, Phylene Wiggins, and Kathleen Sullivan at Grantmakers in Aging.