Tag Archives: caregivers

ACL delivers first report on RAISE Act to Congress

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About Liz Seegert

Liz Seegert (@lseegert), is AHCJ’s topic leader on aging. Her work has appeared in NextAvenue.com, Journal of Active Aging, Cancer Today, Kaiser Health News and other outlets. She is a senior fellow at the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement at George Washington University and co-produces the HealthCetera podcast.

Photo: Asian Development Bank via Flickr

Family caregiving can be rewarding but also challenging. When caregivers do not have the support they need, their health, well-being and quality of life often suffer. So in 2018, Congress passed the RAISE (Recognize, Assist, Include, Support & Engage) Family Caregiving Act. The law directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop a national family caregiving strategy and establish a Family Caregiving Advisory Council to provide recommendations on effective models of both family caregiving and support and improve coordination across federal government programs. Continue reading →

Report focuses on challenges of disaster preparedness for older adults

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About Liz Seegert

Liz Seegert (@lseegert), is AHCJ’s topic leader on aging. Her work has appeared in NextAvenue.com, Journal of Active Aging, Cancer Today, Kaiser Health News and other outlets. She is a senior fellow at the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement at George Washington University and co-produces the HealthCetera podcast.

Photo: macprohawaii (U.S. Geological Survey) via Flickr

Older adults can be especially vulnerable to natural disasters, be it a hurricane, tornado, earthquake, or the recent eruptions from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano. On top of health concerns, they often are socially isolated and lack good transportation options that can slow their response before, during and after a disaster.

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How paying home health caregivers more could save health systems money

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About Susan Heavey

Susan Heavey, (@susanheavey) a Washington, D.C.-based journalist, is AHCJ’s topic leader on social determinants of health and curates related material at healthjournalism.org. She welcomes questions and suggestions on resources and tip sheets at determinants@healthjournalism.org.

Photo: BournemouthBC via Flickr

Is it worth it to provide more skilled – and higher paying – home health care?

That is the question that New York Times’ economic columnist Eduardo Porter tackled in a recent piece examining whether staffing the nation’s long-term care system with better-trained and higher-paid aides could give them more responsibilities and better address health care gaps. Continue reading →

New report: More support needed for male caregivers

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About Liz Seegert

Liz Seegert (@lseegert), is AHCJ’s topic leader on aging. Her work has appeared in NextAvenue.com, Journal of Active Aging, Cancer Today, Kaiser Health News and other outlets. She is a senior fellow at the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement at George Washington University and co-produces the HealthCetera podcast.

Photo: Fairfax County via Flickr

Men now make up about 40 percent of all family caregivers, but a new report says most are not reaching out for emotional support or even recognizing their role as a caregiver.

Some 16 million adult men are caring aging or ill parents or spouses, and nearly two-thirds of them (63 percent) are the primary caregiver. That is up from 34 percent just eight years ago. More than half (54 percent) say it is hard to help their loved one with certain activities of daily living (ADL) like bathing, feeding, or dressing, according to Breaking Stereotypes: Spotlight on Male Family Caregivers from AARP. Many say they have a hard time finding resources specifically tailored to their needs. Continue reading →

Will the hope and hype of predictive analytics pan out?

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About Rebecca Vesely

Rebecca Vesely is AHCJ's topic leader on health information technology and a freelance writer. She has written about health, science and medicine for AFP, the Bay Area News Group, Modern Healthcare, Wired, Scientific American online and many other news outlets.

Photo: jfcherry via Flickr

Photo: jfcherry via Flickr

Predictive analytics is an area of data science that is getting a lot of attention in health care.

Predictive analytics offers a tantalizing solution to problems plaguing resource-restrained hospitals. Namely, if providers can predict which patients will be readmitted within 30 days, or who will acquire an infection in the hospital, they can apply scarce resources to those high-risk patients and change the predicted outcome. This has the potential to improve quality outcomes and lower costs. Continue reading →