Algoma district to research caregivers, the ‘superheroes’ of health care

A research study on caregivers in the Algoma district begins Friday. It's being conducted by the Algoma Ontario Health Team and Algoma University.

Co-lead of the study, Jodi Webber, is an assistant professor in the University's social work department. Webber refers to caregivers as "the superheroes of the health-care system.”

The focus groups include 50 people who look after or help adults in a large variety of ways, from driving someone to appointments, to bathing or clothing.

Webber said they have seven main questions to ask in the sessions, but will largely allow caregivers to steer the directions of the focus groups.

“Tell us about experiences that were positive, when things went well,” she said.

“But also, when did things go badly? What happened? What were the experiences surrounding that?”

To include people from across the Algoma District, the study will have in-person, hybrid, and virtual formats.

The other Co-lead is Sophia Myles of the Ontario Algoma Health Team.

“We really hope to learn and understand more about the challenges that caregivers in the region face, with the focus group, and that it will contribute to improving caregiver supports,” Myles said.

Webber echoes those goals, saying the work can have impacts both academically and within the organizations caregivers often interact with.

“We’re going to be able to inform future planning, especially going into the spring, into the new fiscal year, in strategic development in plans for new programs, or different directions that we need to go,” she said.

Support for new caregivers is expected to be a key discussion point at the upcoming focus groups.

“You don’t often know what you have to do or what’s available in terms of navigating the system until you’re actually in it,” Myers said.

“And then when you’re in the system it can be potentially very overwhelming, and so hopefully providing that knowledge and that insight.”

During the pandemic, the Caregiver ID Program was created by the Ontario Caregiver Organization.

It provided identification lanyards to more than 400 caregivers, signifying that they weren’t typical visitors.

Myers and Webber both say the results of this study could be used to guide the next stages of that program at health-care institutions like the Sault Area Hospital -- and possibly expanded to other settings.