CalCARES (Caregiver Awareness, Resources, Education & Support) - Central to California’s Master Plan for Aging (MPA) is ensuring support for the diverse community of caregivers who are the backbone supporting older adults and people with disabilities in their homes and communities. This two-year project targets caregivers serving older adults and people with disabilities from underserved and under-resourced communities. Goal: Develop, test, and/or scale models to improve awareness, navigation, and educational opportunities for California’s caregivers, in alignment with the National Strategy for Family Caregivers. The project team, led by the California Department of Aging, in partnership with the California Department of Developmental Services and the UC Davis Family Caregiving Institute, will implement three objectives: 1) Awareness: Increase awareness about the role and value of caregivers, the unique needs of caregivers and key resources by leveraging trusted community voices and ethnic media as messengers; 2) Navigation: Maximize caregiver engagement with and referrals to services in the community by developing connections across health care and home and community-based services sectors; and 3) Education: Increase access to high quality trainings for caregivers. Implementation of the above objectives will yield the following outcomes across California’s diverse caregiver population: 1) Increased awareness of the critical role of caregiving; 2) Increased awareness of referral pathways and resources; and 3) Usability of and satisfaction with a curated and indexed inventory of existing caregiver trainings. The expected products include multilingual marketing and outreach materials; proclamation; webinars; referral mapping analysis, listening sessions, and interviews; repository of caregiver trainings and a caregiver guide. California will leverage input from its stakeholder community to inform and advance equity throughout the project.
