Family Caregiver Alliance Congratulates efforts of RAISE Family Caregiving Advisory Council for their newly released National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers
September 30, 2022
Family Caregiver Alliance (FCA) celebrates the release of the 2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the RAISE Family Caregiving Advisory Council, and the Advisory Council to Support Grandparents Raising Grandchildren. FCA pledges to use these guidelines as another tool in our work to support diverse family caregivers.
The National Strategy includes commitment from 15 federal agencies to nearly 350 actions, within the scope of their current programs, to support the nation’s 53 million family caregivers. The National Strategy also includes 150 actions for States, local government, health care agencies, community-based organizations, private sector, and other stakeholders to select based on community and family caregiver needs and preferences. All actions are organized to support one or more of the RAISE Council’s five goals.
- Improved awareness of and outreach to family caregivers
- Inclusion of family caregivers in the care team
- Services and supports for family caregivers
- Financial and employment protections
- Data, research, and best practices
In the future, FCA hopes to see more federal funding designated to supporting additional federal and state programs that match these five goals. We share the authors’ hope that as “the Strategy is implemented—and as the nation more fully comes to understand and respond to the challenges faced by family caregivers—society will embrace the cultural and policy shifts necessary to support them. As a result, over time, lawmakers likely will be called upon to propose legislative changes to better support family caregivers.”
This is a historic moment for family caregiving because, as the Strategy introduction states, “This is the first time that ideas from local and state agencies and nonprofit organizations are integrated with recommendations for the federal government in a combined initiative dedicated to family caregiving. The development of these lists also represents the first time that agencies across the federal government have formally worked together to coordinate family caregiver support planning.”
Public comment on the National Strategy opens on October 1st. Public comments will be integrated into biennial updates to ensure the National Strategy continues to meet the needs of family caregivers and the persons they care for.
*Congress passed the Recognize, Assist, Include, Support, and Engage (RAISE) Family Caregivers Act in 2018, which established the Family Caregiving Advisory Council tasked with creating the country’s first national Family Caregiver Strategy. https://acl.gov/programs/support-caregivers/raise-family-caregiving-advisory-council