Family caregivers, or unpaid caregivers, in the state of California are often tasked with intense and complex caregiving responsibilities. Nearly 1 in 5 Americans today provides some sort of unpaid care to a family member.
Despite the ubiquity of care, not all caregivers have the same experience. Variances in community and demographics, socio-economic status, outside-of-care responsibilities, and more can put incredible stress on caregivers on top of the pressures of care.
The California Caregiver Resource Centers have long recognized the unmet needs of California’s caregiver population. In 2019, the California Department of Healthcare Services invested $30 million into the CRC network and infrastructure. With that funding, the CRCs released CareNav™, a platform designed to quickly connect struggling caregivers with the personalized resources and support they desperately need.
The CareNav™ platform served 16,000 caregivers in its second year and was able to collect important data that will improve our understanding of the caregivers we serve and the quality of our available resources down the line. We have found that the California Caregiver Resource Centers address the needs of California’s most vulnerable caregivers. These findings will help us to prioritize and cater our resources and outreach to the caregivers that will most benefit from it moving forward.
To learn more about our findings and the impact the CRCs and CareNav™ platform have had thus far, click here.