Atlas Research, the Easter Seals Dixon Center, and other collaborators launched a free online webinar series for caregiver education and training this week. The series was created to meet the growing need for caregiver education identified by the RAND study commissioned by the Elizabeth Dole Foundation. The study provided comprehensive evidence-based needs assessments of military caregivers.
The report revealed that 5.5 million Americans are caring for ill or wounded Service Members, and many of these individuals are selflessly fulfilling this duty with little support. The Elizabeth Dole Foundation classified these findings as a societal crisis and decided to galvanize action within the community.
The Elizabeth Dole Foundation created Hidden Heroes: The National Coalition for Military Caregivers to unify and inspire the efforts of individuals and organizations to create a powerful support system to address the significant gaps in support identified by RAND research. Atlas Research, with Easter Seals Dixon Center, Family Caregiver Alliance, Caregiver Action Network, National Alliance for Caregiving, Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving, and United Service Organizations (USO), joined this coalition and is working with the Foundation to meet the needs of our nation’s caregivers.
“This innovative collaboration of leaders in Veteran and caregiver issues is a wonderful example of our coalition's goal to inspire organizations to work together to address the tremendous challenges facing our hidden heroes," said Senator Elizabeth Dole of The Elizabeth Dole Foundation at the coalition’s launch at the White House in April.
Atlas has played an integral role in developing the curriculum for the Veteran Caregiver Training Program which has now reached close to 20,000 Veteran caregivers. Atlas has also coordinated caregiver classroom training throughout the U.S. and the Territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and Guam.
The first installment of the caregiver training webinar series, From Daunting to Doable: The Power of Caregiver Resilience, focused on resilience-building strategies for all facets of life, including mental, emotional, and physical strategies. It was held on May 8th with over 300 registrants.