PACE3: Information and Guidance for Participant Families

Welcome back to our PACE3 email series. We started this email program to share what we're hearing from PACE programs across the country so you can learn from each other. In this installment we are discussing one of the main challenges we keep hearing about - engaging participant family members.

In our discussions, PACE staff have said the ideal definition of family engagement is, "a family member knowing what to do, when things have to get done, and knowing how to do those things when the participant is outside of the center." Here are some ways we've heard PACE programs try to engage family members:

"We give participants a refrigerator magnet with the doctor's phone number to call with questions." PACE RN

"We provide a paper calendar with some tasks we'd like the family member to do at home." PACE Clinical Supervisor

"We have a sheet with all of the urgent care center addresses and phone numbers in the area that we send home with the participant." PACE Social Worker

Paper, magnets, and calendars are different types of off-line solutions that contain information each family caregiver should have. However, they can be lost, thrown away, or unavailable in the time of need. Key information must be accessible from anywhere and in real-time.

Care3 contains all of the care information a family caregiver needs to support your PACE care plan. Since Care3 is a messaging app, family caregivers can communicate with the IDT in real time during normal business hours to get quick answers to questions and alert the IDT of any significant health issues. Working with PACE, Care3 has delivered the first application designed to support the partnership between family caregivers and the PACE IDT.