Survey to find out about education and support programs for informal caregivers (people who support someone who needs help to stay at home)

I am writing to tell you about a research study on educational supports provided to people who support someone who needs help to stay at home (also commonly called “family caregivers” or “informal caregivers”). The study is funded by Echo: Improving Women’s Health in Ontario.
 
A key component of this study is finding out about caregiver education programs/services that are currently available in Ontario, as well as in other part of Canada. Educational strategies could be those that provide information, knowledge, coping strategies, skills and/or competence to help caregivers cope with and address the multiple and competing demands and stresses associated with the caregiving role. The format of educational supports could range from formal education to group discussions, websites, brochures, handbooks and DVDs.
 
We are asking you to complete a brief survey to tell us about any caregiver education programs and services that your organization provides and/or that you are aware of and about which you can provide some information. We are also asking you to forward this e-mail with the link to the survey on to anyone else who may be able to contribute. Anyone who knows anything about a caregiver education program can complete the survey, including organizations through to caregivers themselves.
 
TO COMPLETE THE ONLINE SURVEY, PLEASE CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/echo-caregiver-education-programs
 
Please complete the survey by June 30, 2011. Please contact us if you would like to receive paper copies for distributing.
 
Here is some background to the study:
Caregivers across Ontario provide health care to family and friends with little formal training or support. This role is critical yet it places a great deal of strain on caregivers. Our goal is to determine the current best practice programs and/or tools that provide education to caregivers and to create recommendations for cost effective caregiver education support priorities for a range of informal caregivers across Ontario.
 
The study is called Informal Caregiver Education: Best Practices for Empowering Caregivers. The goal is to identify excellent examples of programs and/or resources that provide education to people who care for others and don’t get paid for doing so. Then, the researchers will make recommendations about what the priorities should be for educational supports to meet the needs of caregivers across Ontario.
 
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact one of the researchers listed below.
 
We look forward to hearing about the educational supports that are available for caregivers and sincerely hope that you will consider contributing and/or passing this email along to others.
 
 
Yours sincerely,
 
The Research Team
 
Catherine Brookman, Vice President, Research and Program Development
Saint Elizabeth Health Care
catherinebrookman@saintelizabeth.com
 
Paul Holyoke, Director of Research
Saint Elizabeth Health Care
paulholyoke@saintelizabeth.com
 
Danielle Bender, Research Associate
Saint Elizabeth Health Care
daniellebender@saintelizabeth.com
 
Betty Tapping, Caregiver
btapping@rogers.com