Engagement as a Goal and Process for Improving Support for Informal Caregivers: The Cremona Beside Caregiver Project

The role of the caregiver is essential in the management of older people's care processes, provide unpaid care and assistance to aged family members and act as case managers. Despite this they are in a potentially dangerous situation for his or her own health. The article discusses the importance of involving stakeholders in social and health service delivery and how this involvement is critical to creating value for patients and caregivers, paying attention to involve the most vulnerable citizens. The Cremona Beside Caregiver research project was conducted in the Cremona area with the aim of improving the quality of support for informal caregivers of older people in partnership with the City of Cremona and the Cremona Chamber of Commerce and with financial support from the Fondazione Comunitaria della Provincia di Cremona. The project was organized and developed in four main phases: socio-demographic analysis of the area was first carried out, then mapping of services and resources for the caregiver, then a phase of stakeholder engagement and an exploration of their outlooks and finally, exploration of caregivers' needs and expectations was conducted to understand the caregivers' point of view. The research project yielded several lessons which can be applied to future research projects in the area of informal caregiving. The results show that the increase of the ageing population in the area is putting a strain on the network of public services, and also showed an area rich in services and resources but lacking in integration and communication between actors. This lack of coordination and sharing among stakeholders leads to a misinformation of existing services among the population, with negative implications on the accessibility of services, paving the way for two intervention solutions.