Caregiver-Centered Care

Family caregivers are the shadow workforce of our society and the backbone of our healthcare system. Family caregivers should feel supported by healthcare providers during this journey. To achieve this, healthcare providers can learn to include caregivers in the care team through the ‘Caregiver-Centred Care’ certificate program.

What is Caregiver-Centered Care?

Caregiver-Centred Care respects and meaningfully involves the care receiver’s family caregiver in the planning and delivery of supportive services. Through this program, healthcare providers can learn to recognize family caregivers as partners-in-care and integrate them into the healthcare journey of the care recipient.

Caregivers Alberta offers facilitated Caregiver-Centered Care programming to organizations ranging from private service providers to public health employees. The outcomes are life-changing for everyone involved:

  • Respecting and meaningfully involving the care receiver’s family caregiver
  • Working together to plan and deliver services
  • Recognizing and addressing caregiver needs and preferences
  • Integrating family caregivers as partners-in-care
Six Core Competencies of the Caregiver-Centered Care Framework

Caregiver-Centered Care is a research-based program, developed by researchers at the University of Alberta, that is designed to fill the gap between what family caregivers need and what they receive in the healthcare system. Researchers at the University of Alberta developed six core competencies of Caregiver-Centered Care:

  • Recognizing the caregiver role
  • Communicating with family caregivers
  • Partnering with family caregivers
  • Fostering resilience in family caregivers
  • Navigating the way through the health and social systems to help caregivers access resources
  • Enhancing the culture and context of care

Watch the TED Talk

There are three Caregiver-Centered Care programs available:

Foundational Caregiver-Centered Care
Learn the six competencies of supporting family caregivers.
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Advanced Caregiver-Centered Care
Go in-depth into each core competency to explore more about how you can support family caregivers using each of these skills.
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COVID-19 Caregiver-Centered Care Education
This program emphasizes supporting family caregivers, and the care they need, during a pandemic.
Learn more