When Did You Get a Brochure Instead of Caregiving Help?
We keep releasing white papers and research. When we will release the program that really helps?
“You’re a caregiver along with all the other things in your life. Here’s a pamphlet to help you along the way.”
Alexis Seth shared a story during our podcast, “WORK LIVE CARE - The Triple Shift”, of finding a brochure created by National Institutes of Health. Finding that brochure made her wonder: NIH has this knowledge that there are so many in this role that they created a brochure. But, systemically, what are they doing to help?
When family caregivers interact within the 19 Caregiving Systems, they receive lots of brochures. They receive a brochure after a family member’s diagnosis, at time of discharge from the hospital, when they research which providers could possibly help.
Family caregivers need more than a brochure.
Yet we stay stuck on releasing more brochures, white papers and research. We have yet to release that supportive program that changes the lives of family caregivers.
We can help to change the shift from more paperwork to programs that work. When an organization announces a new brochure, white paper or research, we can ask:
“How does this improve the daily life of a family caregiver?”
Because we deserve more, we can demand more.
When did you get a brochure when you really needed help?
Resources
“WORK LIVE CARE - The Triple Shift” releases episodes every month. We discuss how we manage to keep a life when we also manage caregiving and work responsibilities. Learn more about Alexis and her caregiving story during our first episode.
We host a regular chat for working family caregivers in our community, CaringOurWay.com. We connect every-other-Sunday at 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT, 5 p.m. PT). Our next chat will happen on November 23.
Alexis inspired this week’s Caregiving Comfort: Brochure.
That is, indeed, the existential question... yet another white paper is triumphantly released into the wild, fluttering about like a bureaucratic snowflake, while the actual program that might help real human beings continues its sabbatical in whatever padded cell organizations use to store actionable ideas. It’s almost poetic, if by poetic you mean “grimly predictable.” We’ve apparently mastered the art of publishing glossy PDFs no one reads, but delivering something useful? That’s scheduled for the same day pigs fly, politicians tell the truth, and IT actually returns your call.