Diverse Elders Caregiver’s Toolkit

Download the DEC’s Resources for Providers: Meeting the Needs of Diverse Family Caregivers Toolkit. This toolkit offers topline information on what providers need to know, and key pieces from our comprehensive training curriculum, Supporting Diverse Family Caregivers: A Guide for Patient Advocacy Groups. Whether you’ve already attended one or more of our trainings, or this is your first time looking into what’s available to help you support diverse family caregivers, we think you’ll find these resources to be invaluable in building a more welcoming, supportive practice.

Supporting Kinship Caregivers | Publications from the Brookdale Foundation

Promising Practices in Encouraging & Supporting Grandparents and Relatives - This publication, a collaboration of the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (N4A) and the Brookdale Foundation, is intended to make the aging network across the nation aware of important and successful Relatives as Parents Programs (RAPPs) operated by Area Agencies on Aging. Download Here

Developing Rural Relatives as Parents Programming: Promising Practice - A Collection of Wisodom from Across Rural America - Written by the University of Maine Center on Aging and funded by The Brookdale Foundation Group. The manual provides Relatives as Parents Programs (RAPPs) with a thorough review of the strengths, needs, and challenges of rural kinship caregivers, as well as practical tips on serving rural grandfamilies.

 The information in the manual is based on a combination of published research and extensive surveys and interviews with both service providers and kinship caregivers. Service providers offered input about the unique needs of their rural clients, barriers rural clients may face in accessing services, and strategies that they have used to help their clients. Kinship caregivers across the country offered insight as to what makes great programming for rural grandfamilies. The result of this effort is a collaborative and comprehensive manual showcasing many of the promising practices in use across the country.

The complete publication is available for download at no charge by clicking here. Professionals in any field that work with grandparents raising grandchildren or other kinship caregivers are encouraged to utilize this manual to better support rural grandfamilies.

Resources for Professionals

The National Alliance for Caregiving is proud to present Caregiving in a Diverse America: Understanding the Systemic Challenges Facing Family Caregivers in the U.S., a new report conducted with sponsorship by Amgen, Inc., with support from the Diverse Elders Coalition and in partnership with the National Minority Quality Forum. Based on a secondary analysis of the survey results found in Caregiving in the U.S. 2020, the data presented includes multiple logistic regression analyses by Dartmouth College researchers. The report highlights significant disparities in support, caregiving intensity, health, and financial impacts among African American, Hispanic and Asian American and Pacific Islander caregivers, LGBTQ caregivers, as well as caregivers across different income brackets and geographical areas. While conducting the research for this report, it became clear that more inclusive methods of data collection are needed to inform research on the needs and possible supports and services that can be provided to diverse family caregivers.

The findings in this report highlight:

• African American, Hispanic, Asian American/Pacific Islander, LGBTQ, rural and socioeconomically diverse caregivers;

• Disparities in living situations, financial status, caregiving activities, self-reported health, and information and services used;

• Personal stories of diverse family caregivers that provide human context to the data;

• Next steps in ensuring data collection and research is inclusive of and equitable to all family caregivers;

• Future policies and improvements to supports, services and the health care system that can better the caregiver experience for diverse populations.