Caregivers

This survey provides national, statewide, and area specific, within certain states (based on population), average daily rates for private and semi-private rooms in a nursing home, monthly base rates in assisted living communities, hourly rates for home health aide and homemaker services, and daily rates for adult day services as well as the range of rates in each area surveyed. Download the survey and key findings.

This report evaluates the experience with the New Jersey Care Partner Support Pilot Program (Pilot) that was conducted in four counties in New Jersey in 2011. The Pilot aims at improving the knowledge and skills of family caregivers caring for adult family members and friends participating in New Jersey’s Medicaid Global Options home and community-based services waiver (GO Waiver) and the state-only funded Jersey Assistance to Community Caregivers (JACC) program.

This study challenges the common perception of family caregiving as a set of personal care and household chores that most adults already do or can easily master. The major shift is that the role of family caregivers has dramatically expanded to include performing medical/nursing tasks of the kind and complexity once only provided in hospitals. The findings highlight an urgent need for both individual and collective action. The report makes ten recommendations to support the current caregivers.

This report finds common themes between African American and Hispanic family caregivers and also between the nurses and social workers. The report suggests ways to improve collaboration and communication between families and professionals. Explores the needs of African American and Hispanic family caregivers, finding common themes between the two groups and also between the nurses and social workers.

What are the fundamental principles of caregiver assessment and why do assessments have an important role in a high-performing long-term services and support system? Caregiver assessment is a systematic process of gathering information about a caregiving situation to identify the specific problems, needs, strengths, and resources of the family caregiver, as well as the ability of the caregiver to contribute to the needs of the care recipient.

This critical essay examines how effectively the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) addresses prevailing deficiencies in the nation's long-term care system and whether the ACA will result in meaningful reform. This article also reviews the basic problems plaguing the long-term care sector and the provisions within the ACA meant to address them, including incentives/options for expanding home- and community-based care and a number of research and demonstration projects.

The coordination of Medicare and Medicaid benefits and services for dually eligible enrollees has been a longstanding policy challenge. Several provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) attempt to address this lack of coordination. This paper reviews the major changes under the ACA directed at care coordination for the dually eligible population and then concludes with a discussion of the continuing legislative and legal challenges in integrating care for the dually eligible.

This is the second “year in review” of developments in family caregiving, and there remains considerable room for improvement in how this nation supports the over 42 million family caregivers (and growing) who provide an estimated $450 billion in “free” care annually. The guide provides an overview of key developments in 2011. Two shorter versions, "45 Facts About Family Caregivers" and "27 Things You May not Know about Women and Caregiving" are also available.

Residential care facilities, such as assisted living facilities and personal care homes provide housing & supportive services to persons who cannot live independently but do not require the level of care provided by nursing homes. RCFs are not federally regulated; state approaches to regulation vary. Using data from the first nationally representative survey of RCFs with four or more beds, this report presents national estimates of RCFs comparing characteristics and services by facility size.

Risk factors associated with the incidence of recipient injuries, bedsores and contractures, and health care use among aged and non-aged adult personal care recipients are investigated. Data are from a statewide survey of aged and non-aged adult personal assistance service (PAS) recipients in California's In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program. Outcomes among recipients using relatives as paid providers are compared with those of recipients having non-relatives as providers.