Stratton VAMC & NFCA Announce $229,727 For Joint Study

Communicating Effectively with Health Care Professionals

 

 

Albany Stratton VA Medical Center – and the National Family Caregivers Association (NFCA) is pleased to announce an award of $229,727 for a joint effort to study the NFCA’s caregiver education program “Communicating Effectively with Health Care Professionals,” (CE).  The funds are available through a VHA Pilot Program in Caregiver Assistance designed to develop new programs to expand and improve caregiver assistance services.  The NFCA-VHA project is one of the eight pilot programs that will be done across the nation in Veterans Administration facilities.

 

The project, titled “Communicating Effectively with Health Care Professionals: Evaluation of a Curriculum for Family Caregivers,” will compare standard VA healthcare to two versions of the CE curriculum: a 3-hour workshop, and a multimedia version that VA scientists Kurt E. Freeman, M.A., and Crystal D. Moore, Ph.D. (John A. Hartford Faculty Scholar in Geriatric Social Work) are making with NFCA President, Suzanne Mintz, M.S., and her colleagues.    In addition to comparing the CE curriculum to standard VA care, this project will try to develop a different method of delivering the educational content in a cost-effective and convenient manner so that more family caregivers can participate in this promising intervention.  This program will package the CE program as a DVD and workbook.  If this pilot program shows that this way of teaching caregivers is effective, the DVDs can be distributed to patients and caregivers throughout the VA system and posted on the VA internet site and the NFCA web site for wide distribution at a low cost.

 

Founded in 1993, the NFCA is a grassroots organization created to educate, support, empower, and speak up for the more than 50 million Americans who care for a loved one with a chronic illness or disability.  NFCA reaches across the boundaries of different diagnoses, relationships, and life stages to address the common needs and concerns of all family caregivers.  For more information, please visit www.thefamilycaregiver.org.