The Family Caregiver Measurement Gap with Sharon Anderson

In this episode of the International Foundation for Integrated Care's podcast series, 'Measuring the Impact of Integrated Care,' Niamh Lennox-Chhugani, is joined by Sharon Anderson, Research Coordinator at the University of Alberta, Canada.

Sharon is passionate about ensuring that health care providers recognize family caregivers and ask them what they need to care and to maintain their own wellbeing.

Her goal is to increase health equity and improve access of care for all through Analytical Skills methods such as evaluation design (using evidence based approaches) in health services management and research methods using big data.

 

 

Key Discussion Points

[3:40] Sharon explains how her experience as a caregiver led her to further studies and research in community rehabilitation, disability studies, and aging family gerontology.

[7:20] A discussion of the difficulties in collecting data on family caregivers, with Sharon noting how electronic medical records often fail to include caregiver information.

[9:45] How current systems collect data more oriented toward what gets financially billed rather than true impact metrics, and the need for better integration of data from different public systems.

[17:00] Sharon argues that if caregiver contributions aren’t measured, they won’t get the necessary attention, and recounts systemic failures where caregiver needs are overlooked.