Grant will help hospice prepare support tool kit’
The goal: A national training program
Caring for a loved one who is dying can put physical, emotional, and financial strains on even the strongest of families, and it is a challenge that more families face with the aging of the baby boomers and society in general.
To help meet that challenge, the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast in Largo has been awarded a federal grant to develop a program to provide support and training for family members who must care for dying relatives.
The hospice will get $600,000 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to pay for the three-year project, which officials hope will eventually reach 10,000 family caregivers throughout the country.
"The goals are really to be able to understand and support family caregivers in a way that also brings some meaning and purpose to their caregiving experience," says Kathy Egan, vice president of the Hospice Institute, which is the research and education division of the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast.
The hospice will begin with a study asking family caregivers and administrators of hospices and palliative care programs throughout the country about what types of training and services would be helpful, says Kim Acquaviva, director of research for the Hospice Institute.
The results of the study will be used to develop a national training program and a tool kit of resources for family caregivers and hospice and palliative care professionals throughout the country, Acquaviva says.
The training program will include much more than teaching family members how to care physically for a relative who is dying. It will also deal with helping family members identify what is meaningful for their relatives during their last days, Egan says.
That might involve teaching caregivers how to approach the topic of spirituality or how to help relatives with things they want to accomplish before they die. For example, Egan says, that could mean creating a video or writing a letter so grandparents who are dying can pass on advice to their children and grandchildren.
"We help caregivers understand what might be going through the mind and heart and soul of the person you are caring for," Egan says.
The training program also will help family caregivers find community resources that can help them stay balanced and focused, a sort of "self-care for the caregiver," Egan says.
The federal government handed out about $6 million to 34 projects around the country in the hope of stimulating innovative approaches to helping family and informal caregivers of older persons, says John Wren, director of the office of program development for the Administration on Aging, which is housed in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Focus on innovative approaches
Two of the major criteria used to determine which programs would be awarded grant money were whether a program offered a new approach and whether a program could be used as a model for other areas in the country, Wren says.
"It’s part of an overall national program that reflects significant advancement in federal policy in support of family caregivers," Wren says. "And it specifically focuses on helping to develop new and innovative approaches to caregiving."
The issue has become even more important because the majority of care being provided to older people in this country comes from family members, Wren says. Caring for a dying relative can put "significant emotional, physical, and financial burdens" on families, he notes.
Founded in 1977 by volunteers, the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast is a nonprofit agency that offers hospice and palliative care, emotional counseling, spiritual support, and other services in Pinellas County.
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