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October 2023Vol. 24, No. 8Federal Agencies Outline Actions to Support Family Caregivers

Family caregivers provide the overwhelming majority of long-term care in the United States and require resources to maintain their mental, physical, and financial health while providing support for others. To help provide family caregivers with the resources they need, two advisory councils (the Recognize, Assist, Include, Support, and Engage [RAISE] Act Family Caregiving Advisory Council and the Advisory Council to Support Grandparents Raising Grandchildren) developed the 2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers.

As part of that strategy, the advisory councils released a list of federal actions that are aligned with and support the strategy’s five goals:

  • Achieving greater awareness of and outreach to family caregivers
  • Advancing partnerships and engagement with family caregivers
  • Strengthening services and supports for family caregivers
  • Improving financial and workplace security for family caregivers
  • More data, research, and evidence-based practices to support family caregivers

The report contains 345 actions that 15 agencies within the federal government can take within 3 years. The actions were developed as part of a 6-month process, during which agencies shared existing programs that already do or potentially could address caregiving issues and then explored ways that those programs could be leveraged to more explicitly support family caregiving without additional legal authorities or funding.

The following are seven key examples of federal actions that are highlighted in the report:

  • The Administration on Community Living will continue to lead the RAISE Family Caregiving Advisory Council and the Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Advisory Council and support the implementation of the strategy.
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will annually update and publish data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System’s Caregiver module.
  • The Department of Veterans Affairs Caregivers’ Support Program will develop a survey tool to conduct a needs assessment for providers and practitioners.
  • The Department of Health and Human Services' Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation will assess the future risk of disability on a population level and how that affects the needs for support, family caregiving, and paid long-term services and supports.
  • The Indian Health Service will add structured fields in its electronic health record to identify patients’ kin and grandparent caregivers.
  • The Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau will fund educational opportunities for low-paid and otherwise marginalized women workers, including employed family caregivers.
  • The National Institute on Aging will initiate a public/private partnership to integrate data on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia and caregiving.

Explore the rest of the actions in the full report, 2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers: Federal Actions.

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