How the Care-Coaching Model Empowers Caregivers

Providing care for an older family member or friend isn’t something most people are prepared to do. Many individuals who find themselves in a family caregiver role weren’t expecting to take on such responsibility, and they often lack the time, knowledge or tools to do everything they feel they need to do. 

Because of this, there are a wide variety of caregiver support programs available today, offering everything from much-needed respite to support groups, and training programs to counseling. These programs can be very effective in providing some relief to caregivers. Unfortunately, many of them are narrow in their focus, and some offer only short-term solutions.

Organizations looking for more lasting solutions for caregivers may want to consider a comprehensive caregiver support program – one that helps to generate longer-lasting solutions to a wide range of caregiver needs. 

Care-coaching is an intentional term that’s used to describe the support process in BRI Care Consultation, which is an evidence-based caregiver support program available to professional organizations.  Care-coaching is a method of providing caregivers with the answers they need and guiding them to solutions – without doing it for them. In the spirit of “teaching a man to fish,” Care Consultants (coaches) arm caregivers with the knowledge, skills and resources that will empower them to enact effective solutions to the issues they’re facing.  

Let’s say, for example, that an employed caregiver is struggling to get their mother to a weekly mid-day doctor’s appointment. The Care Consultant may identify the names and numbers of reputable transportation services in the area. They may work with the caregiver to list possible neighbors or family members who could participate in the transport. Or perhaps they might suggest moving around another obligation to enable an early- or later-day appointment schedule. 

But the Care Consultant doesn’t swoop in and make the calls, rearrange schedules or call the doctor’s office on behalf of the caregiver, and there’s a very important reason for that. Empowerment!

Care-coaching Empowers Caregivers for Longer-Lasting Effects 

Empowerment is a major element of BRI Care Consultation’s effectiveness. The care-coaching model enables the caregiver and the care receiver both to better identify problem areas, then gives them the knowledge and ability to access the tools and resources needed to find solutions.   
Providing care to an older adult with a chronic illness can go on for years. According to AARP, the average duration of caring for a loved one is 4.5 years, and the average amount of time spent is 24 hours per week. Caregiving becomes a major part of life for these individuals. The empowerment model in this program enables caregivers to continually solve new problems as they emerge by arming them with knowledge, tools and confidence. 

The other critical aspect of caregiver empowerment is self-care. It’s well documented that caregivers often neglect their own physical and emotional health and well-being to focus instead on the loved one they’re caring for.  Thirty-six percent of caregivers admit to feeling high or extremely high levels of emotional stress due to caregiving, and nearly one in four caregivers say they have a difficult time maintaining their own health. Of caregivers in self-reported difficult care situations, 60 percent indicate that their health has declined as a result of caregiving. 

A primary influence of caregiver empowerment is enabling caregivers to recognize the impact that providing care has on their lives and their health, and encouraging them to take engage in activities directed toward their own well-being. Those activities may include respite from caregiving responsibilities, yoga or other mindfulness classes, hobbies, physical fitness or visits to a physician – whatever is important to the individual. The empowerment fostered by a comprehensive care-coaching model encompasses all aspects of a caregiver’s environment, and drives them toward embracing solutions for their own needs. 

Take a few minutes to get an overview of how BRI Care Consultation works and learn why it’s so effective in offering caregivers meaningful, long-term solutions.  
  
For  brochure on care-coaching and BRI Care Consultation, please complete this short form. Or you can email [email protected] or call 216-373-1662.