Caregiver to Caregiver: An Exploratory Case Study in Adult Family Caregiving Experiences

Adult family caregiving is a national public health issue which is more prominently recognized since the COVID pandemic. The National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers (2022) highlights more than three hundred federal government actions in support of family caregivers and more than 150 actions that can be addressed at other levels of government with their partnerships to build a caregiver support system. A partnership between the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH), the Mississippi Public Health Association (MPHA) and AARP MS is working to address many of the issues related to the heathy aging ecosystem in Mississippi. This case study was designed to address one component of that ecosystem; that is, how to incorporate the experiences of current or former family caregivers into concise, easy-to-access tips for the adult family caregivers in Mississippi today. While this exploratory case study was not designed to be a research brief, the results of the focus groups comments will be used to develop a toolkit to guide adult family caregivers in Mississippi to the best evidence available for each phase of their caregiving journey. That toolkit is expected to be released in late fall 2024.