Educating Caregivers in Rural Area - Research Proposal Example

The paper “Educating Caregivers in Rural Area” is a worthy example of a research proposal on family and consumer science.There is evidence that families and the community play a critical role in providing care for the elderly and those with terminal illnesses. Family members take up the responsibility of caregiving in cases whereby one of their members is undergoing a health condition or is aged. Usually, some of these caregivers lack the relevant training, empowerment, and the support that they need if they are to deliver quality health care.

In the rural areas, Caregiving becomes a heavier task because there are no nearby facilities that the caregivers could rely on in a bid to improve the quality of the care they deliver (Rice, 2006). Much of this fall under the category of informal caregivers who are taking care of either a sick person, a person with a physical disability or the aged. They are usually unpaid individuals who may be either family members, a spouse, friends or neighbors who offer care related to the individual’s health condition.

Many informal caregivers deliver such care within the home setting. There is evidence that these caregivers require education as well as therapeutic support so that they can be empowered to deliver quality care. A close analysis reveals that they are overburden to the responsibilities of caregiving. This justifies prompt intervention (Talley, 2011). Innovative Significance of the Program After a thorough analysis of the needs exhibited by caregivers in rural areas, it is a worthwhile venture to launch a program, which will offer caregiver education and training in a bid to alleviate their current burden of caregiving.

The program will seek to enlighten caregivers about the existing services, giving them guidelines on how to access the services. Moreover, the program will focus on don offering individual counseling to caregivers because they need emotional support to be able to carry out their duties effectively (Jacobs & Zarit, 2006). The program will also include the formation of support groups whereby caregivers can receive support and motivation from other caregivers and be able to share their experiences.

Offering caregiver training will also be a critical part of the program because these caregivers need to realize the steps involved in decision making concerning the caregiving tasks (Wykle & Gueldner, 2011). For many caregivers in rural areas usually spent a great percentage of their time in caregiving, there is a need to organize respite care so that they can get some form of relief. Finally, efforts of offering supplemental services that can serve to compliment the level of care offered by caregivers will also be initiated (Jurkowski, 2007).

Significance of the Program The launching of this program is a significant move because it will serve to embark caregivers in rural areas by providing them with the relevant education, hence reducing the level of a burden they experience in caregiving. Since the program will be launched in rural areas, it serves as an innovative move by helping communities to find solutions for existing problems (Family Caregivers Alliance, 2012). Implementation of the Program The program will be implemented in different phases since it requires coordination of the caregivers, mobilization of resources, the performance of different tasks, and the assessment of the potential outcomes.

Therefore, the program is intended to start on a small scale and expand over time (Administration on Aging, 2014). In a period of two years, the launched program should begin to register noticeable outcomes (Toseland et al, 2011). Estimated Cost of the Program The estimated cost for this program is about $100,000. Although it is intended to be a low-cost program, there is a need for accessing education resources and medical equipment required in the training of the caregivers. Since the program will be launched in rural areas, there is an expected high cost in logistics (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014).

Qualifications for Launching this Program In my opinion, I am well placed to launch this program because of my professional understanding of caregiving and my passion for helping people (Trujillo, 2008).