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STRATEGIC INITIATIVES AND RESEARCH

Transforming the Future of Caregiving 

RCI believes caregivers deserve robust systems of support that center the caregiver and their experience – not just the diagnosis of their care recipient. In order to help advance this vision, RCI is working to break down siloes across health care, government, and business, through a portfolio of transformative research projects and innovative strategic initiatives.

STRATEGIC INITIATIVES AND RESEARCH

Transforming the Future of Caregiving 

RCI believes caregivers deserve robust systems of support that center the caregiver and their experience – not just the diagnosis of their care recipient. In order to help advance this vision, RCI is working to break down siloes across health care, government, and business, through a portfolio of transformative research projects and innovative strategic initiatives.

RCI is taking action to transform the future of caregiving by:

  • Researching and developing a series of caregiver typologies, or similarities and differences across caregiving experiences, which will pave the way for more targeted and effective policies and programs
  • Building a centralized data platform for the collection, analysis, and dissemination of caregiver data
  • Partnering with employers on the Working While Caring initiative to design, pilot and evaluate innovative programs to better support caregiver employees
  • Exploring how caregiver bereavement should be identified and monitored
  • Equipping caregivers with emergency preparedness skills and techniques.

Shifting the Paradigm: Caregiver Typology Project 

In our report, “Recalibrating for Caregivers: Recognizing the Public Health Challenge,” we called for a comprehensive public health approach to caregiver health and well-being. We also made the case to shift our collective focus from caregiving to caregivers as a vulnerable population.
 
The caregiver experience is often overgeneralized. Our health care system and policies typically categorize caregivers by the disease condition of the care recipient, with little to no information on the lived experiences of caregivers themselves.
 
To better support caregivers of people who are aging or who live with an illness or disability, we must first
understand how the burden, intensity, and duration of caregiving shape the caregiver’s experience.  To address this knowledge gap, RCI launched the Caregiver Typology Project in partnership with Duke University.
 
RCI is engaging a diverse array of caregivers with different experiences, including, but not limited to those who provide care to persons with dementia, cancer, chronic conditions, developmental disabilities, mental health issues, and combat-related post-traumatic stress. In doing so, we will develop a clearer understanding of the similarities and differences across
“We are excited to work with RCI to provide evidenced-based results that support their incredibly important work. This partnership provides a unique opportunity to use our collaborative research to quickly translate findings to on-the-ground programs that support family caregivers—a vital resource for long-term care. Our goals are to understand the experiences of vulnerable family caregivers, determine which caregivers will benefit from RCI’s programs, and builds ways to communicate important results to our program implementers and caregivers.”
 
– Dr. Megan Shepherd-Banigan

Assistant Professor in Duke University’s Department of Population Health Science and School of Medicine and Core Faculty in the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy.

RCI’s Latest Research:

If you would like to get involved in RCI’s research projects and strategic initiatives, please email us at info@rosalynncarter.org.

Other RCI Resources

OUR PROGRAMS​

Caregiving can be a fulfilling journey, but it can also be challenging – resulting in significant mental, physical, and financial strain on the caregiver.

Explore Our Programs​
4 KINDS NETWORK​

A National Survey of Caregiver Stress in the U.S. Workforce

Learn More
WORKING WHILE CARING​​

One in five full time employees is also providing care for someone who is aging, ill, disabled, outside of thier paid job

Learn More

We can’t do this work without the support of caregiver champions like you.​

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