Caregiving Initiative

Families and other unpaid caregivers, such as friends and neighbors, are the primary providers of long-term care in the United States. Caregivers often assume these responsibilities without adequate preparation and ongoing support, resulting in poor health for themselves and unnecessary institutionalization of their older relatives. Social workers and nurses are on the front lines of interacting with family caregivers, but frequently lack the competencies and resources to effectively support these informal caregivers.

In order to better prepare both professions to assist family caregivers, the American Journal of Nursing, AARP Foundation, Council on Social Work Education, Family Caregiver Alliance, and Rutgers Center for State Health Policy collaborated to improve the knowledge and skills of nurses and social workers to provide practical, evidence-based tools to informal caregivers of older adults.

A report entitled “State of the Science: Professional Partners Supporting Family Caregivers” was published through the Journal of Social Work Education (JSWE) and the American Journal of Nursing (AJN). Full-text articles from JSWE are available below. These projects were made possible by funding from the John A. Hartford Foundation and the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation.