Using an Aging Services Agency/University Partnership to Study Informal Caregiver Respite Programs

By the year 2030, 13 % of the world’s population will be aged 65 years or older. At some point, many of these older adults will require some form of informal caregiving from family members and/or friends. Furthermore, 40 % of the caregivers caring for these elders currently are between the ages of 50 and 64, making caregiving an important productive aging activity. As a result of the doubling of the 65?+?age group globally by the year 2050, caregiving will become an important social and public health concern. And, the labor and services provided by caregivers will continue to be a critical activity of productive aging. For this reason, it is imperative that research examining the impact of caregiver respite programs on caregiver outcomes, including caregiver strain, general health, and emotional well-being, be conducted in order to meet the needs of future informal caregivers. In this paper, the authors answer the following question: How can researchers effectively partner with community-based agencies to carry out caregiver respite program studies that bridge academia and every day practice, and inform policymakers about the values of community-based caregiver respite programs for the caregivers of frail older adults? The question is answered by: 1) describing the factors that contributed to the success of one university/community-based partnership, 2) describing, and reporting, the results of two caregiver respite program studies conducted by the partnership, and 3) discussing the lessons learned as well as the future research opportunities that resulted from the university/community-based agency research partnership.