Introduction: Older care-partners (50+) of older persons play an important role in supporting the person they care for. Over time, the increased demand of the older person’s care needs on the care partner can result in the care-partner placing their own needs aside. Our study aimed to establish and pilot a novel co-designed Carer Health and Wellbeing Service (CHWS) that offers multidisciplinary (social work, psychology, occupational therapy and physiotherapy) one-to-one support to care-partners; assisting them with their own health and wellbeing needs.
Methods: Pre-post 6-month study design including qualitative and quantitative data. Consenting care-partners attending the CHWS complete five measures pre- and post- their interaction with the Service: Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool (CSNAT); Preparedness for Caregiving Scale (PCS); Family Appraisal of Caregiving Questionnaire (FACQ); EuroQoL Five Dimension Five Level Scale (EQ-5D-5L); and Health Economics Survey.
Results: Service operation commenced 1 day/week in March 2024 with 16 participants to date. Preliminary pre-data indicates care partners feel underprepared for the carer role (particularly emotionally and psychologically), experience high levels of guilt when addressing their own care needs, and are unsure how to advocate or navigate the aged care system. Additional findings will be reported.
Conclusion: Preliminary data suggests partners have identified and prioritised health and wellbeing needs of their own which they need support to address. Key priorities evidenced in the findings to date inform the provision of the Carer Health and Wellbeing Service to support the needs of care-partners.