Clearly, more and more families are providing care to people at home and are in tremendous need of additional support. This report looks at the major issues, which are looking at the family caregiver as well as the patient as both in need of care.
The idea is that the family is in some way able to choose from a kind of menu of what would be helpful to them.
This identifies the caregiver as a recipient of care and essentially as much of a patient as the frail elder. That makes perfect sense. The physician doesn't have the resources, the connections. If there was a clear referral path, they would be willing to do it.
A frail elder without the family caregiver won't make it, but if you don't have a sense of who that family caregiver is you don't know what is needed. Assessment is an intelligent step.
