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There are about 53 million family and friends providing care and assistance to loved ones in the United States. Although family caregivers provide a significant portion of health and support services to individuals with serious illnesses, they are often overlooked by U.S. health care systems. Fundamental changes are needed in the way we identify, assess, and support family caregivers. Recent changes in the U.S. health care system and payment models have increased the opportunities to integrate family caregivers into care teams. The authors reviewed the literature on the role of family caregivers in the coordination of care and conducted key informant interviews with 13 experts from diverse stakeholder groups to better understand the barriers to integrating family caregivers into the patient's health care team and identify ways to mitigate these barriers. The authors identify promising policy directions and provide recommendations for next steps in assessing, developing, and implementing policies to improve the integration of family caregivers into care teams. Family caregivers have direct access to loved ones with caregiving needs. These regular interactions allow family caregivers to monitor health changes on a more-regular basis than would be possible for formal health care providers. Including family members in care collaboration improves patients' access to services and reduces patients' unmet needs. Despite these benefits, caregivers are often treated as secondary members of the care team. Although the role of family caregivers is gaining more recognition, integrating them as partners in the care team is not standard protocol currently.

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• Reference Manager
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Since the move to an all-volunteer force, the U.S. military has increasingly provided an array of programs, services, and facilities to support military families, including programs to assist spouses in pursuing their educational and employment goals. These programs are particularly important, given that military spouses face challenges related to military life that can make it difficult for them to maintain and develop careers. One program designed to help spouses of junior military personnel meet their educational and employment objectives is the My Career Advancement Account (MyCAA) scholarship. This report analyzes data collected from November 2012 to March 2013 on the 2012 Active Duty Spouse Survey to examine MyCAA scholarship use in the previous year and educational and employment goals and barriers faced by recent MyCAA users and nonusers. The survey showed that nearly one in five eligible spouses used MyCAA in the previous year, and more than half of nonusers were unaware of the scholarship. Key reasons for not using the scholarship among those who were aware of it include perceived program ineligibility and lack of time for education. Reported barriers to achieving educational and employment goals were remarkably similar for recent MyCAA users and nonusers. Cost was the key reason spouses reported for not pursuing higher education. Barriers to both education and employment among interested spouses included competing family responsibilities and difficulties with child care. The authors conclude with recommendations for improving and complementing the existing MyCAA scholarship to help military spouses achieve their educational and career objectives.

Military spouses --- Military Administration --- Military & Naval Science --- Law, Politics & Government --- Education (Continuing education) --- Employment --- Services for --- Military wives --- Spouses --- Training of