Who we are

What Caregiver-Centered Care means to us
Caregiver-Centered Care is person-centered care for family caregivers. It is a collaborative working relationship between families and health and community care providers. This means supporting family caregivers in their caregiving role, decisions about services, care management, and advocacy.

Our Origins

The Caregiver-Centered Care initiative originated from work between the University of Alberta and Alberta Health Services beginning in 2014. Over 400 stakeholders gathered to identify the gap between what family caregivers required from healthcare providers and the education provided to those providers.

Our Aim

By educating and supporting health teams, our aim is to transform the healthcare system such that family caregivers are recognized, supported, and integrated into care teams.

This to be done by:

Our Team

Jasneet
Parmar

PROJECT LEAD

Email
jasneet.parmar@ahs.ca
Phone
780 691 8351

Sharon Anderson

Project and Research Coordinator

Email
sdanders@ualberta.ca
Phone
780 953 5541

Leeca
Sonnema

STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION coordinator FOR ACUTE AND PRIMARY CARE

Email
leeca@ualberta.ca

Leeca
Sonnema

EDUCATION LEAD POST SECONDARY INSTITUTIONS

Email
leeca@ualberta.ca

Carleen Brenneis

CONTINUING CARE IMPLEMENTATION LEAD

Email
cmbrenne@ualberta.ca

Ginger
Bitzer

rural growth & partnership Lead

Email
bitzer@ualberta.ca

Jamie
Stewart

DESIGN LEAD

Email
jcstewar@ualberta.ca

Frances
Ross

STRATEGY ADVISOR

Email
fran@farstrategic.ca

Darlene Schindel

EDUCATION COORDINATOR NURSING TRAINEES

Email
dschinde@ualberta.ca

Our Partners

Timeline

2013

The Caregiver-Centered Care initiative at the University of Alberta began, working with collaborative partners and using co-design principles to understand and support caregivers' needs.

2014

A multidisciplinary group of over 400 stakeholders convened to identify the gap between what family caregivers needed from healthcare providers and the education available to providers.

2019

Core competencies were developed and validated for the health workforce using a multilevel interdisciplinary stakeholder co-design approach.

2021

Foundational Education is launched and widely welcomed as essential education for healthcare providers.

2022

COVID-19 Education is released educating healthcare providers on how to effectively partner with family caregivers during the pandemic.

2023

All six modules of Advanced Education are released providing comprehensive instructions in each of the competency domains.

Caregiver-Centered Care education is shared widely across health learning platforms allowing healthcare providers to take the training as part of their regular professional development offerings.

2024

Champions Education is released providing direction to Caregiver-Centered Care Champions on how to bring about organizational change.

The three-year "Innovating Integrated Supports for Alberta’s Family Caregivers Strategy & Action Plan" project commenced, funded by Alberta’s Ministry of Assisted Living and Social Services and led by Dr. Jasneet Parmar.

As a pilot program, 13 continuing care organizations agree to train their staff on Caregiver-Centered Care.

2025

Physicians Education is released providing instruction tailored specifically to their clinical responsibilities and settings.

The Strategic Action Framework is released providing a blueprint for government and organizations to develop implementation plans.

2026

The Embedding Caregiver-Centered Care Toolkit was released making a robust set of resources available to any organization looking to embrace family caregivers as essential partners in care.