“I believe that one of the most important things to learn in life is that you can make a difference in your community no matter who you are or where you live.”
Rosalynn Carter’s words bring into clear focus how my life as a former working daughter, current griever and health executive are interconnected.
Over the past five years I’ve had the privilege of serving the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers, and now as its final CEO as our work merges with the Carter Center.
The gravity and opportunity of this moment is far more than a milestone for an organization. It marks a shift in how the country recognizes caregiving as one of the most urgent issues of our time and brings a twin tsunami into view: a need for care, with a need to connect — each outpacing our capacity to address both together.
Caregivers, while helping loved ones, face loneliness and isolation
Credit: Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers
Credit: Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers
The fact is, we are living longer. We are relying on care delivered at home. Health care costs are skyrocketing. Formal health and care providers are exhausted and dwindling, with many young people reconsidering whether they will opt in to training and serving in these fields.
As a result, we are seeing families face hard decisions. How can young caregivers support parents who need care and still pursue their dreams? How can adults advancing their careers manage to care for all who need them? No matter what generation, the topic of caregiving is top of mind.
Just as I am proud how the importance of family caregiving has bursts onto the scene, I’m equally concerned about the direction I see emerging in many sectors.
This twin tsunami — a rising wave of loneliness, depression and social disconnection — have health and technology interplays. But not in the same direction.
While caregiving might help the health recipient, it negatively impacts the caregiver’s health. While technology might help the efficiency of the health recipient, it also is a source of isolation and loneliness for the caregiver.
Three ways to make real connection a priority
Recently, we see many agencies, donors and nonprofits focus on sharpening the nation’s health tech ecosystem: from national health care directories, expanding digital identification systems and stakeholder connections to automating claims data access and promoting AI-driven solutions. These efforts promise efficiency and access. But at what cost?
The global bell on loneliness has rung with the first World Health Organization resolution on social connection. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rang the bell nationally noting that caregivers report high rates of isolation and mental health strain — 40% feel socially isolated and 30% have a depressive disorder — because caregiving often can separate people from the routines, networks and connections hardwired into their lives.
There are clear ways forward when we choose to prioritize real people and real connection:
- Redefine who caregivers are. Too often, technology is developed around the clinical health system and the diagnosis of the care recipient, not the impact of providing care on the family caregiver. Elevating the caregiver experience across cultures, above and beyond the diagnosis of the person in their care, lessens the impact of care on them, while also enabling the positive impact that caregivers provide.
- Center young caregivers. From school, to work, to social life, Gen Z is seeking more human interaction. As more and more young people are stepping in to provide care at home, making up more than 5 million of the country’s family caregivers, they are longing for mentorship and support, not tech solutions that might assist their day to day but keep them isolated from peer-to-peer connection.
- Design for rural realities. In rural parts of the country and the world, caregivers face both geographic isolation and digital exclusion. Technology can help, but only if we invest in place-based interventions that match how rural communities and other communities “out of reach” operate: mobile care units, broadband subsidies, caregiver hubs in trusted local institutions, community-based organizations, neighborhood collaboratives, homeowner associations and telehealth parity that centers the user, not just the system.
Former first lady Carter, in reflecting on her life, once said that she hoped she used the opportunity she was given. As we steward the careful transition of this important chapter of Carter’s organization, it reminds me that we all can do the same. Use this moment, embrace this opportunity — when caregiving is finally visible — to be courageous, and to foster technological advancement and community building for caregivers.
Paurvi Bhatt, MPH, is CEO of the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers. She is a global health systems leader, daughter of immigrants, former caregiver and current griever.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
