HASC, in partnership with the Ventura County Community Foundation, is supporting an innovative pilot project for caregiver support. Three hospitals are participating – Community Memorial Hospital, St. John’s Regional Medical Center and Adventist Health Simi Valley Hospital. VCCF has provided grant funds to supplement hospital dollars designated to this pilot. 

HASC is working alongside hospitals and VCCF to facilitate shared learning, identify opportunities to further collaboration and refine best practices for serving caregivers in the community.

The project has been incorporated into the larger collaborative CHNA effort within the county and will include other participating stakeholders post-discharge from the hospital.

Photo: Matthias Zomer/Pexels.

Basically, hospitals will identify caregivers of medically-fragile seniors over 65 years old, incorporate that caregiver into the patient’s care planning, provide the caregiver education around the patient’s condition, provide support services post-discharge, including a home visit and follow-up calls, plus warm hand-offs to community resources.

The pilot is three years long and will be underway during the first half of 2020. Data from the pilot will be collected and evaluated to determine how the intervention has reduced caregiver burden, reduced hospital readmissions and improved patient satisfaction scores, among other positive outcomes.

The goal is to create a proven model that can be duplicated across the country.

There is additional information about VCCF at https://vccf.org/caregiving-initiative/ and a pilot program toolkit for parties interested in more information.

Please reach out to Audra Strickland, HASC regional vice president for Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, with any questions.

Contact:
Audra Stickland
(805) 679-1717
astrickland@hasc.org