Exciting news! The state of California has made a major investment in supporting family and paid caregivers called CalGrows, a project supported by the California Department of Aging CalGrows Innovation Fund. AND as part of this groundbreaking initiative, Canary Health® was awarded a million dollar contract to expand its Building Better Caregivers® workshops to paid and unpaid family caregivers of California. Learn more here. To see the California governor’s June 5th Calgrows press release, click here.
As exciting as the CalGrows program is, the national attention to caregivers has also been amazing.The Biden-Harris administration announced the "most sweeping set of action to improve care in history."The President signed "an Executive Order that includes more than 50 directives to nearly every cabinet-level agency to expand access to affordable, high-quality care, and provide support for care workers and family caregivers". To see the announcement click here.
California residents who are an unpaid family or friend caregiver or direct paid caregiver to an older adult OR to an adult with a disability or ongoing health condition who also reside in California are eligible for the California CalGrows funded Building Better Caregivers program. If you or someone you know would like to join the program, they can sign up here.
And if you haven’t caught Adam’s Scale Health podcast, you can find out what’s new in the healthcare industry here. In good health,
Neal Kaufman, M.D., M.P.H. Founder & Chairman of the Board, Canary Health®
To continue to build California’s health care workforce, the California Department of Aging (CDA) announced the launch of the CalGrows workforce training and development program. CalGrows is open for registration with hundreds of courses available to caregivers working with older adults and adults with disabilities, helping support Californians on a path to a career in health care and ensuring the state retains highly-qualified health care workers.
We're proud to announce Canary Health'sBuilding Better Caregivers has been awarded part of the grant to offer the program free to Family and Paid caregiver residents in California.
"Investing in and growing our health care workforce is critical to the health and safety of Californians," said Governor Newsom. "As the entire United States faces a health care worker shortage, the CalGrows initiative is yet another tool California is using to ensure our health care workforce remains strong by providing opportunities to those already caring for loved ones."
The program includes free training for paid direct care workers, Home and Community-Based Services caregivers,and unpaid family and friend caregivers.
On April 18, 2023, the President signed an Executive Order that includes more than 50 directives to nearly every cabinet-level agency to expand access to affordable, high-quality care, and provide support for care workers and family caregivers.
To provide greater support to family caregivers, the Executive Order directs HHS to consider testing a new dementia care model that will include support for respite care (short-term help to give a primary family caregiver a break) and make it easier for family caregivers to access Medicare beneficiary information and provide more support to family caregivers during the hospital discharge planning process.
by Sean Tan, Sriya Kudaravalli, and Kathryn Kietzman
Family and friend caregivers are the backbone of our long-term care system, providing the lion’s share of home and community-based care for people with chronic care needs and disabilities. There are both challenges and opportunities associated with caregiving. Numerous studies have documented the many adverse consequences of caregiving to the caregiver. A few data points from the 2020 California Health Interview Surveyfollow:
1. A sizable proportion of family and friend caregivers in California are
struggling financially, experiencing physical or mental health
problems, and receiving little if any financial support for their
caregiving responsibilities.
2. In 2020, 1 in 4 California caregivers provided 20 or more hours of care to a family member or friend in a typical week, yet only around 1 in 11 received payment for any of the hours spent providing care.
3. More than 20% reported that caring for a family member or friend was "somewhat" to "extremely" financially stressful, with Black or African American (28%), Asian (23.4%), and Latinx adult caregivers (21.9%) more likely than white adult caregivers (17.7%) to report this experience.
4. About 1 in 7 caregivers (13.5%) reported a physical or mental health problem within the past 12 months due to caregiving.
5. Fewer than 1% of California caregivers reported using employment-based leave benefits to support their caregiving responsibilities in 2020.
Renee cares for her husband with PTSD. Before participating in Building Better Caregivers (BBC), she never took time for herself.
"Through the program I learned I'm not good to anyone else unless I'm good to me. BBC gave me the resources to help manage my stress and take care of my husband. It saved our marriage."
CalGrows is a California Department of Aging (CDA) program designed to support caregivers of older adults and people with disabilities.
California residents who are an unpaid family or friend caregiver or direct paid caregiver to an older adult OR to an adult with a disability or ongoing health condition who also reside in California are eligible for the California CalGrows funded Building Better Caregivers program. If you or someone you know would like to join the program, they can sign up here.
Hosted by Adam Kaufman, PhD, and Co-founder, Canary Health
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