Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #109092

Douglas Mains, DrPH, Department of Health Management and Policy, University of North Texas Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie Blvd, Fort Worth, TX 76107, 817-735-0473, dmains@hsc.unt.edu, Thomas J. Fairchild, PhD, Special Projects on Aging, University of North Texas Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie Boulevard, Fort Worth, TX 76107, and Antonio A. Rene, PhD, MPH, Epidemiology ,School of Public Health, University of North Texas, 3500 Camp Bowie, Fort Worth, TX 76107.

Funded by a grant from United Way of Metropolitan Tarrant County, the Employee Life Caresource (ELC) Program in its second year of providing employee caregiver support, expanded from one worksite with 3,500 employees to eight worksites with over 10,000 employees. The ELC Program provides educational sessions, caregiver counseling and web-based caregiver information to employee caregivers of participating employers. Results of a caregiver assessment conducted at selected worksites will be presented as well as the marketing strategies used to advertise and promote the ELC program and the overall utilization and evaluation of the program. In a non-probability, convenience sample, employees at five companies completed a total of 282 surveys; 39% identified as current caregivers, 17% as caregivers in the past and 35.4% as future caregivers. Evaluation of the ELC Program includes number and type of participants and their caregiving duties, participants' evaluation of educational sessions, follow-up surveys of caregiver counseling recipients and website utilization. In a preliminary analysis of educational sessions, participants reported an average knowledge gain of 1.5 points on a 5-point scale, an overall session rating of 4.3, an average of 4.3 for attainment of session learning objectives and an average instructor rating of 4.2 for all sessions. Barriers and opportunities for improvement for employee caregiver support programs, including program ownership by partner companies and communication, also were reviewed.

Learning Objectives: