Evaluation of the Title III-E National Family Caregiver Support Program

The 2000 reauthorization of the OAA created a new program aimed at supporting family caregivers. Older Americans Act Title III, Part E provides grants to States and Territories under approved State Plans for the establishment and operation of the National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP).  The NFCSP is to provide a multifaceted system of support services to family caregivers and grandparents or older family members caring for related children.  Supportive services include information to caregivers about available services; assistance to caregivers in gaining access to the services; individual counseling, organization of support groups, and caregiver training to assist the caregivers in the areas of health, nutrition, and financial literacy, and in making decisions and solving problems relating to their caregiving roles; respite care to enable caregivers to be temporarily relieved from their caregiving responsibilities; and supplemental services, on a limited basis, to complement the care provided by caregivers.

AoA has adopted a multi-phase approach to program evaluations.  The first phase is design of the evaluation followed by an implementation phase.  The evaluation design contractor is tasked with developing a comprehensive, multi-level design to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the Title III-E program.  The evaluation shall be based on a logic model that includes the assessment of outcomes on program participants as well as a process evaluation to examine the implementation of the NFCSP at the State Unit on Aging (SUA), Area Agency on Aging (AAA) and Local Service Provider (LSP) levels.

The second phase of this effort is implementation of the designed evaluation that will include national data collection at all levels of the Aging Network (SUA, AAA, and LSP) and with program participants and the people for whom they care.  This evaluation is targeted to provide the first review of this Program’s impact on family caregivers and the persons for whom they care. 

Status to Date:

• A design contract was awarded to the Lewin Group, Inc. in FY 2008.
• Work on the evaluation design is near completion.
• The contract option to conduct the evaluation was exercised in FY2009.
• Data collection is planned to begin in FY2010.