As North Carolina’s population ages and rates of disease and disability rise, the demand for care giving continues to grow. Existing programs and studies primarily focus on care for children and older adults as well as for specific diseases and disabilities. Caring for others – biological family and families of choice and others – is part of being human and manifests in many different ways across a person’s life course, affecting people of all ages and stages — including young people, working adults, and individuals with their own care needs.
A 2023 article by Erin Kent and colleagues, Caregiving Across the Life Course: A Health Policy Priority for North Carolina, describes the challenges faced by informal caregivers who support individuals across various age groups and health conditions, including short-term and long-term illness and disability. The authors highlight the significant gaps in North Carolina’s caregiver policies and support systems, which are underfunded, understudied, inconsistent across NC counties, and often inaccessible due to restrictive eligibility criteria.
To address these gaps, the authors offer a set of recommendations guided by the Life Course Health Development framework, advocating for a comprehensive approach to caregiving across the lifespan. These recommendations build upon the call to action issued through the North Carolina Institute of Medicine’s (NCIOM) 2020 report, Improving Serious Illness Care in North Carolina.
The issues raised by Kent et al and the report are of particular interest to the Jordan Institute for Families (JIF), which is preparing to launch a research initiative focused on caregiving across the life course. To that end, we are reviewing the literature, identifying colleagues across campus (and beyond) with a passion for this topic, and convening informal meet ups to offer a space for discussion and connection as we refine our direction.
We are interested in exploring a variety of topics in upcoming discussions and gatherings, including:
Policy Focus: What policies and incentives best support and value caregiving—both within families and when external help is needed? What care giving responsibilities should society collectively support? Businesses?
Caregiver Support: How can we help caregivers not only survive but thrive? How can we uplift the joy in and moral value of caring for others? How do we normalize caregiving as something to expect to offer and receive across the lifecourse? How do we mitigate the negative impacts of caregiving, including chronic stress and emotional burden? What models from other cultures or countries effectively support caregivers? How do we better support those who provide emotional care and sit with others’ pain?
Shared Aid and Reciprocity: How can people creatively working together strengthen caregiving in an individualistic society? What principles and practices ensure mutual aid is equitable and effective? How does mutual aid differ across caregiving stages and responsibilities? What successful models exist in faith and community settings? How can we address barriers to asking for and receiving help?
Workplace Support for Caregiving Employees: How can employer best practices, such as Family First certification, be expanded to support caregiving beyond early childhood?
Family Relationships and Caregiving Capacity: What family structures and dynamics foster long-term care giving support within and beyond the nuclear family? How are positive care giving behaviors modeled and passed down across generations? What supports siblings in maintaining strong relationships and being prepared to care for one another and their families?
Caregiving Workforce: How can we learn from caregiving professionals’ insights into family dynamics and caregiving challenges? How do we fairly compensate them for their knowledge and contributions?
What did we miss? Please let us know and join the conversation. Contact Rakiah Anderson at Rakiah@unc.edu.
Stay tuned for a series of blog posts and interview conversations diving into these topics. We invite you to engage with us in upcoming conversations as we work together to strengthen care giving in NC and beyond.
Works cited:
Kent EE, deJong NA, Barnette H, Deaton S, Appert K, Ming DY. Caregiving Across the Life Course: A Health Policy Priority for North Carolina. North Carolina Medical Journal. 2023;84(2). doi:10.18043/001c.73015
