New international Taskforce on family caregiver costs

December 19 2019

We are really pleased to be involved with a new taskforce set up by the European Association of Palliative Care to develop a programme of research and related practice to address the significant costs incurred by family caregivers within a palliative care context.

The aim of the Taskforce is to:

1. Initiate an international research network of researchers, clinicians and policymakers with an interest in the area, including early career researchers and postgraduate students.

2. Develop the research agenda through co-authored publications, collaborative grant applications and funded research.

Clare Gardiner and Merryn are leading the Taskforce and the steering group and members are:

EAPC Taskforce on the costs of family caregiving

Steering committee

Dr Jackie Robinson, The University of Auckland, NZ

Prof Claire Hulme, The University of Exeter, UK

Assoc/Prof David Meads, The University of Leeds, UK

Prof Phil Larkin, Universite de Lausanne, Switzerland

Dr Christine Rowland, University of Manchester

Dr Michael Connolly, University College Dublin, Ireland

Kristy Kang, University of Auckland

Tessa Morgan, University of Cambridge

Members

Prof Tony Ryan, University of Sheffield

Prof Roger Chung, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Our milestones are as follows:

Milestones

1. Our first milestone will be to establish an international network of researchers, clinicians, policymakers with an interest in research on the costs of caring in palliative care. We have already established an international steering group of academics and researchers and we hope to add to this through our links with the EAPC. We are particularly keen to attract early career researchers and postgraduate students and this will be a focus of taskforce recruitment. We will aim to hold an initial meeting of the taskforce at the EAPC World Congress in Palermo, May 2020. Further contact will be achieved by e-mail and Skype and meetings scheduled to coincide with EAPC events and meetings.

2. The taskforce will form the basis of an international, multidisciplinary research collaboration with the aim of furthering the research agenda on the costs of family caring in palliative care. By building a research community in this area we aim to develop a programme of research which will build on our existing expertise and provide internationally relevant data in the area of costs of caring. Specifically we will use the taskforce to develop collaborative relationships which will help leverage funding in the different countries that are represented. For example, EU funding opportunities through Horizon 2020. To begin however, we hope to secure funding from a UK funding body for a small initial project from which we can build. Taskforce members will be encouraged to share intelligence about relevant funding calls and to seek collaborations from within the taskforce.

If you want more information, please contact Merryn: m.gott@auckland.ac.nz