Caregiver Process Evaluation
Description of Program
The program that I chose to build my work on is the Elderly Caregiver Support Group that I am familiar with. This program is very essential to the caregivers since it comes with a package of benefits from education, advice and motivation. It fosters the environment for information sharing, awareness, advice and reassurance (Cho & Kim, 2016). This program is both conducted online or locally and the caregiver has to weigh the benefits and limitations of both to find the best that is convenient for them. The program is a way to not only educate new caregivers on how to effectively care for their loved ones but would also teach them coping strategies and resiliency to deal with the exhaustion and stress that comes along with the job. They offer chances of learning from others who experienced similar challenges, and let one open up with their experience. Caregiver support group consultations provides new and sound tactics of caregiving, together with ones that functioned for others who were in similar circumstances (Cho & Kim, 2016). Caregivers who join the program gain perception and caregiver stress management tools coming from interacting with others sharing experiences. From this meetings and interactions, caregivers get to learn ways of assisting their loved ones with their daily living activities, protection, nourishment and sustaining their financial needs.
The Elderly Caregiver Support Group program applies a 3-phase element for every member to undergo before finalizing it. The first phase that a participating caregiver goes through is called the Red Phase. This is a phase where the participants get to learn the basics of caring for their loved ones. Among the lessons is how to how to accomplish their daily or routine activities of life, organizing for safe transportation to and from a vehicle, their seats and beds in their households. This is also a phase where caregivers learn how to make nutritious meals for the people, they are taking care of.
The second phase of the program is known as the Blue Phase. This is the phase where the members are taught ways of handling the financial needs of the person being taken care of. It enables participants to learn about all the necessary arrangements of their loved ones at their end of life and assisting them to make ad write a Will. They will learn how to arrange for Power of Attorney, and support for the final arrangements. This is an opportunity where the caregivers adequately prepare for the end of life of their loved ones.
The final phase is the Black phase. This phase teaches caregivers ways of coping with anxiety and trauma experienced in the process of caregiving. The participants will also get to learn the approaches of resilience and coping mechanisms to handle any circumstances that may arise.
Key program elements
The key element to the program is to edify members on the facts of caregiving, whereas training them on weariness and being over wielding emotionally that may impact their lives. It also emphasizes on teaching members the indicators of burnout to recognize whether they are being affected psychologically and emotionally by the duties they perform. The program similarly is utilized for the purpose of referring all members to other agencies and organizations that assists the senior populations.
Strategies of Change
By means of role playing, all the members participating excellently learn the ways of performing their daily duties for their clients. They will also get knowledge and skills on recognizing the warning signs and symptoms of fatigue and caregiver weariness in deterrence of it. Getting involved in these activities will be a source of change for both the caregiver as well as their clients since they will be enjoying the taste of proper care from all round caregivers. Similarly, the program will empower the participating caregivers to enthusiastically provide care for their clients.
Needs
The senior populations often have a numerous needs to be taken care of. These needs include the need to for safety, proper diet, emotional and physical support of their activities of daily living (ADL’s). Activities of daily living comprise activities as being dresses, brushing their teeth, grooming, bathing, cooking and cleaning (Thakur & Han, 2019). Since they can’t drive on their own, they need to be assisted in the making of appointments and transit to fulfil the appointments. The senior population may also need to be assisted with their end of life activities when preparing the appointment of Power of Attorney, framing a Will and seeking professional assistance. Caregivers’ role in this context is very essential to meet the above mentioned.
Importance of Process Evaluation
Process evaluation is very essential to me as well as the caregivers. It would be very useful in learning whether the program I chose for my senior population caregivers is working effectively in assisting the participants to do get to understand what is required of them to be a successful caregiver. The only effective way to do so is to conduct a client satisfaction survey of the program by distributing the messages just in advance to all the participants. The messages would let contributors recognize that that survey would be useful in obtaining response to make the program improve. I would be required to give an explanation of the purpose of that survey and how important their responses are in determining how effective the program is and if need be, adjusting the program to make it better. I would complete a program evaluation at the agency in a one on one environment to make the interview more private.
Relationship Building and Management
Relationships building and management necessitate weekly and monthly meetings to contemplate on any issues within the program. During these meetings, each member is given an opportunity to freely speak and provide their responses on the performance of the program which will help in making adjustments in the program. It is very essential to also have a close relationship with organizations and agencies where participants will be referred, by building relationships. It can be done through meetings with them or invitations to our agency where they can learn about the program so that we are all able to provide assistance to the senior populations. To strengthen the relationships, team building activities such as physical exercises, having a common dinner and partnering will be essential
Broad Questions
What were the strengths of this program?
What were the weaknesses of the program?
How often will you evaluate and update a written care plan?
Specific Questions
Were the agencies you were referred to helpful?
How do you respond to difficult clients?
A plan for gathering and analyzing the information
Data that need to be gathered is majorly qualitative. To easily collect this data, survey will be necessary through questionnaires (Taherdoost, 2016). I will first draft the questions and ensure that they capture all that pertains caregivers. Participation request messages will be sent to prospective respondents and the later on followed by the questionnaires. Upon completion of the survey, all the data is gathered together in qualitative analysis programs to perform cross analysis. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) will be a great software to perform the analysis.
References
Cho, K., & Kim, Y. J. (2016). A study on family caregiver support programs in the USA: the case of the state of Georgia. International Journal of Human Ecology, 17(2), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.6115/ijhe.2016.17.2.1
Thakur, N., & Han, C. Y. (2019). Framework for a personalized intelligent assistant to elderly people for activities of daily living. Int. J. Recent Trends Hum. Compute. Interact. (IJHCI), 9(1), 1-22.
https://www.cscjournals.org/manuscript/Journals/IJHCI/Volume9/Issue1/IJHCI-147.pdf
Taherdoost, H. (2016). Validity and reliability of the research instrument; how to test the validation of a questionnaire/survey in a research. How to Test the Validation of a Questionnaire/Survey in a Research (August 10, 2016).
http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3205040