Aging has arrived in the community, and there is a whole new battery of tools, resources, and programs that can enable older people to adapt and to remain in their homes safely and constructively. These tools enable them to access and orchestrate all the available resources and can connect these formerly isolated older people with family, neighbors, and one another.
That is where you come in.
The healthcare industry that we have all relied on is generally focused on the treatment and cure of acute conditions, and it is not really designed to address the needs of older people who remain living in the community with an accumulation of multiple chronic conditions. The community is becoming the new venue for long-term care. And much of what was formerly done in institutions can now be done at home and in the community. While many families are already overwhelmed by shouldering the responsibilities of caring for a frail family member, they are not aware of how the resources that technology and the network era have made available can ease the burden of caring for people experiencing multiple chronic conditions.
The missing link is connecting families to the new network of supports that offer a raft of resources that can fundamentally change the care experience for entire families. But without a trusted community organization, one familiar to the family and to others in their social network, families often don’t have the knowledge or the wherewithal to escape a lonely, frightening, desperate experience.
CAC USA is a nonprofit that was created to enable a trusted community organization to link its members to a range of free tools to help them manage the care of a loved one. Your role is to serve as the link. That is the critical missing connection. CAC USA does not ask or require you to take on any responsibilities, tasks, or burdens regarding caregiving – only that you enable families to link to these tools, and to one another.
The Jointly app has been developed and utilized for a decade by CarersUK, a national charity in Great Britain. As an affiliate of that charity, we are bringing it to the US. We work only with nonprofit community organizations.
If there are families in your community that you feel may be interested in and benefit from using the tool, please call us. We can provide you with a simple notice that you could place in your community’s newsletter, social media, or website. We have developed simple materials that we will make available to explain how the tool works and how families can use it. Interested families could inform you or us directly. We will take it from there and will keep you informed all along the way.