Research Recommendations included in the RAISE Family Caregiving and the Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren (SGRG) Advisory Councils’ Reports to Congress

The RAISE Act Family Caregiving Advisory Council recently released its recommendations in an initial report to Congress. The report includes family caregiving policy opportunities, diverse family caregiving stories from across the country, and 26 recommendations to better support family caregivers. The RAISE Advisory Council will develop a National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers to coordinate federal, state, local and private sector actions to improve the lives of family caregivers.

Goal 5 and the related set of recommendations focus on increasing family caregiving research and dissemination of promising and evidence-informed practices. 

Goal 5: Family caregivers are engaged stakeholders in a national research and data gathering infrastructure that documents their experiences, translates evidence into best practices, develops person and family-centered interventions, and measures progress toward the National Family Caregiving Strategy.

• Recommendation 5.1: Establish a national infrastructure using standardized data, questions, and definitions for obtaining, analyzing, and disseminating information about caregivers and their experiences.
• Recommendation 5.2: Increase family caregiver research that facilitates the development and delivery of programs and services that support and enhance the health and well-being of the caregiver and the person receiving support.
• Recommendation 5.3: Increase the promotion, translation, and dissemination of promising and evidence-informed practices to support family caregivers in the delivery of health care and long-term services and supports.

The Advisory Council to Support Grandparents Raising Grandchildren’s initial report to Congress is a culmination of a two-year, multi-faceted effort that gathered information from kin and grandparent caregivers of children across the country. It provides an overview of the many complex issues faced by these families and recommendations for addressing them.

One of the five priority areas identified by the Council is Research, Data and Evidence Supported Practices. The recommendations that fall under this priority area are:

• Recommendation 5.1: Establish a national approach for obtaining, analyzing, and disseminating relevant data on kinship families and grandfamilies
• Recommendation 5.2: Increase, support, and sustain research and development, including adequate investments for evaluation of programs that support kinship families and grandfamilies.
• Recommendation 5.3: Increase the promotion, translation, and dissemination of promising practices, model approaches, evidence-informed and evidence-based practices to support kinship families and grandfamilies.