HealThySelf: Healthy Self-Care for Working Informal Caregivers

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More than 34 million Americans provide unpaid care for an adult 50 years of age or older. Of these informal caregivers, approximately 60 to 70 percent report being employed while providing care. Caring for a relative while working outside of the home can take a heavy toll on caregivers’ health. Working caregivers have poorer health than non-caregivers, as measured by perceived health measures and feelings of low mood and by objective measures such as stress hormones, disease rates and medication use. Most prominent among the causes of poorer caregiver health are psychological distress and alterations in health habits. Data on health promotion practices indicate that caregivers score lower on most measures of health promotion behaviors, and higher on barriers to health promoting actions. The demands of caregiving create many barriers to performing the health promoting activities necessary for caregivers’ own well-being such as scheduling doctor visits, attending to their diet, and engaging in physical activity. There is, therefore, a need to provide caregivers with the information and skills to better cope with the demands of caregiving and attend to their own health and wellbeing. Interventions have been developed to assist caregivers; however, no web-based programs exist for systematically addressing the self-care needs of working caregivers. Workplaces are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of supporting working caregivers and are interested in offering services to employees to reduce absenteeism, health care costs and employee turnover. The purpose of this project will be to develop an interactive web-based program addressing the emotional, physical and self-care needs of working caregivers. Web-based services have the advantage of flexibility in access, scalability in scope, and tailoring of individual needs. The program will focus on self-care skills designed to improve psychological well-being, physical health, and promote positive health practices. ISA Associates, in partnership with a team of expert consultants, the Redmon Group, and our workplace partners will develop and test the HealThySelf program for working informal caregivers. The primary objectives of the project are to (1) develop a product capable of addressing the self care needs of working caregivers, (2) advance the technology and supports available to working caregivers, and (3) conduct an analysis and test of the program to assess it’s effectiveness in promoting the health and well-being of working caregivers. To accomplish these objectives ISA will build on its’ extensive experience in developing health-related interventions. In Phase I ISA will conduct pre-development focus groups and consult with experts in caregiving to create a science-driven and relevant program. We will also conduct a feasibility test of the program’s appeal compared to an existing website. Benchmarks will be established for moving to Phase II. During Phase II the program will be fully developed, tested in a randomized control trial with our partners at Inova Health System and The Johns Hopkins University Office of Work Life and Engagement, and prepared for marketing.