ARCH Provides Feedback on AHRQ’s Technical Brief Protocol for the Evidence Map on Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) project.

Select members of the ARCH Committee for Advancement of Respite Research joined ARCH in submitting recommendations to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) on their Technical Brief Protocol for the Evidence Map on Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) project.

Highlights of ARCH Recommendations

1. Recognize the important role of family caregivers and encourage the inclusion of outcome measures that are not only person-centered, but caregiver- and family-centered. In the face of the workforce crisis, family caregivers are more critical than ever to assurances of continuous care. Finding the optimum strategies to support them so that they can continue to provide care are central to the future of a successful long-term services and support system.
2. Include respite care services in the list of interventions.
3. ARCH encourages the use of recommended common data elements for respite research developed by the CARR.
4. Broaden the scope to include to populations other than adults age 60 and over.
5. AHRQ should be intentional and explicit about the need to understand the cultural and linguistic appropriateness of HCBS interventions and the potential disparities in outcomes that may exist across populations.

Read all of the ARCH recommendations in the submitted comments.