Principal Investigator: Candace L. Kemp
Co-Investigators: Elisabeth O. Burgess and Jennifer Craft Morgan and Mary M. Ball and Molly M. Perkins (Emory University)
Funding Agency: National Institute on Aging (1R01AG044368-01A1)
Study Dates: 08/01/2103 – 07/31/2018
Value: $1, 938,313
Study Contact: Joy Dillard, Project Manager

This research was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health, Award Number R01AG044368.

Assisted living (AL) is the fastest growing segment of the long-term care industry. Unpaid care provided by family and friends (i.e. informal caregivers) play a critical role in residents’ ability move to and remain in these residential care settings and also affect residents’ and caregivers’ quality of life. Our recent work shows that most AL residents have care convoys that include family and friends and evolve in response to resident decline and family, friend, and facility transitions. In recent years, however, AL residents have grown older and frailer and require higher levels of care, a trend that is apt to alter the demand for informal care and the configuration of care roles.

In 2013, Dr. Candace L. Kemp and colleagues were awarded a grant valuing nearly $2,000,000 from the by the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health, to conduct a 5-year, qualitative study, “Convoys of Care: Developing Collaborative Care Partnerships in Assisted Living” or the “Convoys Study.” Dr. Kemp worked with a large and talented team of faculty, staff, and student researchers. The study took place between 2013 and 2018 in and around Atlanta, GA and involved 8 diverse care communities – both personal care homes and assisted living communities.

The overall goal of this study was to learn how to support informal care and care convoys (networks) in assisted living (AL) in ways that promote residents’ ability to age in place with optimal resident and informal and formal caregiver quality of life. The specific aims were:

1. To understand how informal care in AL is experienced, organized, and negotiated within care convoys over time;
2. To understand the factors that influence informal care work in AL and how they operate to support or hinder the development of care partnerships that promote aging in place with optimal resident and informal and formal caregiver quality of life; and
3. To determine successful strategies for building care partnerships in AL.

Across our 8 study sites, we conducted in-depth interviews, visited regularly, and had at least weekly or bi-monthly contact with 50 residents and 169 of their care network members. We spent two years in each community and made over 1,500 visits.

Study findings continue to be disseminated in a variety of ways, including recommendations, a study, and academic publications: