It’s a scenario that’s played out in pharmacies across Alberta every day: a patient’s agent requires pharmacy services on behalf of a friend or family member. There are more than one million Albertans who provide care to loved ones, which can include accompanying patients to visits to health professionals, scheduling appointments, and managing medications. Providing care for a loved one can be a tough, tiring, and often stressful job.
For the past 25 years, those who care for loved ones have been able to turn to Caregivers Alberta, an organization that strives to empower caregivers and promote their well-being by providing resources, mental health support, and education.
“When we started out, we primarily had two services,” said Keith Johnston, Advisor, Strategic Partnerships for Caregivers Alberta. “First, our call support, which is an 800 number where individuals could call to get general caregiving information or referral to other services. The other is what we call Compass for the Caregiver. It’s a four-week education program that provides caregivers with different tools to support them along their journey. The program helps people to identify themselves as a caregiver, gain a clear understanding of their role, how to manage stress and burnout, how to communicate more effectively, and how to navigate the health system.”
As the demands for caregivers have become more complex and the need for Caregivers Alberta’s services has increased, the organization has ramped up its programming to help meet the needs of the community. Caregivers Alberta also provides support designed for specific types of caregivers such as double-duty caregivers (healthcare workers who are also caregivers for a loved one at home) and sandwich caregivers (those who provide support for an older loved one, such as a spouse or parent, while also raising children).
Of course, pharmacy teams spend much of their time caring for patients through caregivers. Keith says pharmacy teams play an essential and underestimated role in supporting caregivers.
“Pharmacy professionals are uniquely positioned to identify a caregiver early in their journey, provide timely guidance, and connect families to resources that can significantly reduce stress and improve health outcomes,” said Keith. “Pharmacy teams can help not only in terms of managing complex medication schedules and navigating chronic conditions. They can also check in on that caregiver; provide that listening ear; and direct caregivers to community supports that can prevent burnout, help reduce emergency visits, and improve the overall quality of care and life not only for the care recipient, but the caregiver as well. The role pharmacy teams play is foundational to sustaining caregivers and helping them manage the complexity of the journey they’re going through.”
Caregivers Alberta has many resources available to help healthcare professionals, including printed materials they can provide to caregivers with information about the services Caregivers Alberta provides. There are also resources to help healthcare professionals identify the burnout and stress caregivers often experience, and help them maintain their self-care. They also offer courses—both in person and virtual—for health professionals to better understand and support the caregiver role.
“Another initiative is Caregiver Connect, which is an online referral program, which allows healthcare professionals to refer a caregiver to us,” said Keith. “It takes the onus away from the caregiver to reach out to us and puts the onus on us, the organization, to connect with that caregiver and identify what supports they need. We connect them into our own programs, support their journey, and connect them to a coach if needed. We’ll also report back to whoever made the referral to let them know if we were able to contact with that caregiver and if we were able to provide support. If we weren’t, we give it back to the healthcare professional who made the referral to follow up with them next time they see them and see if they’re interested in receiving support.”
Caregivers Alberta also provides resources that pharmacy teams can provide to caregivers, including
- Resource Roadmap, which is a database to help caregivers and healthcare professionals find a variety of local resources and supports;
- Printable Resources, which include
- 10 Ways to Build Resilience,
- Planning Self-Care,
- Caregiver’s Bill of Rights,
- Caregiver Well-Being Checklist, and
- Finding Balance in Caregiving; and
- Program Events Calendar, which is an ongoing calendar/list of programs currently running and coming up.
If there’s one other thing pharmacy team members can do for caregivers above everything else, it’s to check in on the caregivers themselves.
“Really be open to listening to the caregiver,” said Keith. “We hear from caregivers all the time that when they go out and talk to their healthcare professional, very rarely do they get asked how they are doing. One of the key things that individuals in health care can do is simply ask how that person is doing. You don’t need to have the solution. Just being asked how they’re doing means a lot to caregiver. It’s actually one of the main reasons why Caregivers Alberta was founded. These individuals were going into medical appointments, into pharmacies, into primary care and acute care settings. It was always about the care recipient. Meanwhile, as a caregiver, they’re taking on a lot of responsibility. It’s often burdensome, sometimes quite stressful. Having that support for them is very key.”
ACP is supporting Caregivers Alberta with a charitable donation this year. You can learn more about the services Caregivers Alberta provides healthcare professionals on the Caregivers Alberta website.
