Telephone & Online Coaching Services for Caregiving Families
CCA is committed to providing comprehensive coaching and support services in innovative ways designed to meet the changing needs of caregiving families. Program planning has benefited from a collaborative relationship with the Benjamin Rose Institute (BRI; www.benrose.org), which culminated in a recently completed engagement. Our work focused on expanding BRI's Care Consultation program nationally. Care Consultation is an award-winning program that provides families with evidence-based coaching services offered through organizations in a variety of settings.
Guided by research-based protocols, coaches establish rapport with caregiving families, conduct a situational analysis of their needs, and empower caregivers and care-recipients to establish and carry out action plans to improve their situations. Action plans consist of a series of attainable short-term goals1.
Coaches strive to build up and maintain participant’s self-confidence by empowering them to make informed decisions throughout the process. Participants receive regular telephone (and soon, online) access to personal coaches in a process aimed at supporting caregiving families to limit health risks, and improve decision-making and caregiver techniques. Coaches assist caregiving families to deal with complex issues such as crisis management; family dynamics; and medical, financial and legal responsibilities. Care Consultants typically possess a bachelor’s or master’s degree in social work or nursing. Follow-up materials and referrals support the family’s strategies for action.
CCA’s Care Consultation activities included program planning, providing sales and marketing services, and conducting a national market research program.
Care Consultation can be offered through a variety of organizations; including health services providers, payers, voluntary health agencies, employers/unions, and affinity groups. Providers may include health plans and regional hospital systems, Continuing Care Retirement Communities, nursing homes, home health agencies, and community programs for aging in place (e.g., NORCs2, neighborhood villages). Payers may be health or long-term care (LTC) insurers, and possibly Medicaid programs (e.g., waivered managed LTC services).
In a subsequent demonstration, plans call for expanding Care Consultation’s health promotion component and working with community service organizations to deliver coaching to the low-income caregiving families they serve. Coaching services and support materials will be available in English and Spanish.
To learn more about this program, click here:
Care Consultation brochure PDF
1Caregiving families will be helped to achieve their goals in different ways based on which stage of change they are in: Precontemplation, Contemplation, Preparation, Action, Maintenance or Termination. Many of today’s coaches apply positive psychology and related techniques to empower participants to move from their current stage (e.g., Preparation) to the next stage (e.g., Action) on the change continuum. See Prochaska PhD, James O., Norcross PhD, John C. and DiClmemente PhD, Carlo C. Changing for Good. (New York: HarperCollins Books, 1995).