Innovation: Caring for the Carers

Portugal

AAI Domain: Independent, healthy and secure living (care giving to older adults, improving access to health care services)

As societies age there is going to be an increase in the need for social care for older people and the vast majority is going to be provided informally by family and friends in the community. If this care giving becomes too intensive and carers are not adequately support then they are at heightened risk of their health and well-being deteriorating.

Women in their mid-40s to their mid-60s are at the core of this caring relationship and it is widely recognised that public support to informal care giving is an essential part of a robust healthy ageing strategy. The World Health Organisation’s Regional Office for Europe’s strategy for health ageing considered this to be one of five priority interventions, and this is position is widely supported by policy makers across Europe and the wider world.

Caring for the Carers is an innovative project that began in 2009 in the sub-region of Entre Douro e Vouga (EDV) near Porto in northern Portugal. It was promoted by the Social Service Centre for the Elderly and Children of Sanguedo with the support of the Unit for Research and Training in Adult and Elderly care and was funded from municipal funds as well as financing from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. It operated in five municipalities in the EDV region that had a combined population of 283,000 people across rural and small urban environments and it aimed to support to informal caregivers of people with dementia and/or post-stroke, two of the major causes of disability in old age.

Caring for the Carers consists of a number of initiatives starting with 10 weekly psychoeducational intervention sessions that provide caregivers with strategies for reducing their level of stress, raising awareness of self-care for caregivers and sharing experiences of caring to increase mutual support. A second form of intervention was the development of geriatric agents and assistants for family community support to create employment opportunities for informal caregivers to utilise their experience and skills.

A third dimension was the activation of local volunteer networks to provide support for caregivers in everyday activities and to strengthen social relationships that can be marginalised or lost when caring becomes intensive. A fourth form of intervention was the development of rest services to provide respite care so that caregivers could have a short break from their caring.

Finally, an online discussion forum was development for caregivers and care professionals that involved raising awareness across the community of care-giving, project events and meetings, involving secondary school students as volunteers as well as organising community senior classes. The project was run by a Caregiver Support Office in CASTIIS and originally ran from 2009 to 2013 but was extended to operate over the 2014 to 2016 period as recognition of the achievements and potential it offered.

In relation to active ageing, Caring for the Carers provides a range of support services for caregivers who are at risk of exhaustion and burnout that is harmful to their health and well-being. There are tens of millions of carers across Europe now and their numbers are going to increase in the future so it is essential that a range of solutions are developed that reflect the particular social, cultural and provision of care contexts across Europe so that this valuable but vulnerable group in society are supported.

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