Abstract
Background. Research, practice, and policy have focused on educating family caregivers to sustain care but failed to equip healthcare providers to effectively support family caregivers. Family physicians are well-positioned to care for family caregivers. Methods. We adopted an interpretive description design to explore family physicians and primary care team members’ perceptions of their current and recommended practices for supporting family caregivers. We conducted focus groups with family physicians and their primary care team members. Results. Ten physicians and 42 team members participated. We identified three major themes. “Family physicians and primary care teams can be a valuable source of support for family caregivers” highlighted these primary care team members’ broad recognition of the need to support family caregiver’s health. “What stands in the way” spoke to the barriers in current practices that precluded supporting family caregivers. Primary care teams recommended, “A structured approach may be a way forward.” Conclusion. A plethora of research and policy documents recommend proactive, consistent support for family caregivers, yet comprehensive caregiver support policy remains elusive. The continuity of care makes primary care an ideal setting to support family caregivers. Now policy-makers must develop consistent protocols to assess, and care for family caregivers in primary care.
Highlights
Caregivers are critical partners in chronic disease management
Each team had one social worker in attendance and a variety of other professionals because each primary care network employs staff to serve the specific needs of their population
The results show that family physicians and their primary care teams thought that primary care could support family caregivers consistently
Summary
Caregivers are critical partners in chronic disease management. They provide70 to 90% of the care to persons living with frailty, complex chronic conditions, and impairments in the community [1,2,3] and are considered “key partners in long-term care” [4,5].We define family caregivers as any person who takes on a generally unpaid caring role and provides emotional, physical, or practical support in response to physical and/or mental illnesses, disabilities, or age-related needs. [1,6] At the same time, demographic changes, family structure, and gendered role changes, and health and continuing care practice reforms have increased the demand for care while threatening the supply of family caregivers. Practice, and policy have focused on educating family caregivers to sustain care but failed to equip healthcare providers to effectively support family caregivers. We adopted an interpretive description design to explore family physicians and primary care team members’ perceptions of their current and recommended practices for supporting family caregivers. Policy-makers must develop consistent protocols to assess, and care for family caregivers in primary care
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