Community convening aims to guide solutions to inequities in caregiving

Community convening aims to guide solutions to inequities in caregiving 
UMass Chan Medical School, by Susan E.W. Spencer; 3/26/24
Jennifer Tjia, MD, MSCE, knows from her experience as a researcher and geriatrician how demanding the role of caregiver can be and how structural barriers impact patient outcomes. She wants to see research that drives solutions to health inequities. The second community convening of the Equity in Caregiving Project, a $3.8 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health, which Dr. Tjia, professor of population & quantitative health sciences, co-leads, aims to advance the conversation about what challenges family and clinical caregivers of people with serious illness are experiencing. ... Up to 20 percent of caregivers retire early or quit their job; 22 percent exhaust short-term savings; 20 percent have late or unpaid bills; and 11 percent are unable to afford basic expenses like food, according to Tjia.