Sustaining Chicago's informal caregivers: an age-friendly approach

In this project researchers work closely with informal caregiver stakeholders and caregivers to answer the question ‘is the city of a Chicago an age friendly place from the perspective of informal caregivers caring for older adults aged 50+ and how can caregiver utilization of services be sustained?’ A core goal on completion of the project would be to increase Chicago’s capacity to sustain a diverse informal caregiver population. We aim to achieve this in two ways. Firstly, through analysis of caregiver ratings of indicators for eight core age friendly domains: outdoor spaces and buildings; transportation, housing, respect and social inclusion; social participation, communication and information, civic participation and employment, community support and health services. The indicators themselves will be selected by caregiver stakeholders in the community. Secondly, through journey-mapping caregiver experiences as consumers of support and health services. The project is being undertaken to ensure that informal caregivers for adults aged 50+ (with early Alzheimer’s and Arthritis) are consulted and appropriately represented in city planning for an ‘age friendly’ future. The key rationale for a caregiver focus is the prominence of this complex and hard to reach population of study.