Community Caregiving Initiative - Santa Barbara Foundation

What are the chances that YOU will be a caregiver or need a caregiver? Almost 100%. In fact, unpaid family caregiving is so common it makes the caregivers themselves easy to ignore, to the detriment of their health and happiness.

The Community Caregiving Initiative (CCI) develops and supports on-the-ground service networks for the county’s 70,000+ unpaid caregivers, who provide 87% of long-term care, yet are more or less invisible to the community and even to themselves.

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Strengthening Families on the Journey of Caring

While caregiving provides rewards, it also exacts a toll. Over 50% of caregivers spend forty hours or more per week on care. Caregivers are in poorer health than non-caregivers, twice as likely to suffer from serious stress, and well over half of them lack confidence to do all the necessary tasks of their role. We want to equip these invisible heroes to provide care and care for themselves.

Working with a broad range of service providers, CCI supports caregivers and connects community organizations by:

Integrating the Caregiver as a Medical Team Member
Broadening Access to Therapy for Caregivers
Encouraging Self-Identification and Engagement
Increasing the Effectiveness of Lay Health Workers
Increasing Support for Caregivers of Medically Fragile Patients and those with Dementia
Connecting and Educating Families of Alzheimer’s Patients
Helping Caregivers Visualize their Caregiving

Interim Evaluation Report March 2019

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Family Caregivers in Santa Barbara County

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CCI Community

Historically, services for caregivers have been somewhat disjointed and hard to find. These partners are building a network with CCI to make sure that services are available and easy to find and use.