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Care4 TM System
The key to elder care is preparation and planning!
Care is the essential and core value of the human experience. Based on Erik Erikson's work, it has been said that, "Care, the ethical basis of the adult's prime years, is the essential link between each person's life cycle and both the prior and future generations". 1
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Care-giving is a myriad of emotions, behaviors, and thoughts. In the context of elder care the emotions, behaviors, and thoughts can vary day-to-day and over the course of many years. This is both natural and normal. We are all seeking the balance of maintaining our own lives, but realize that others can be and will be dependent on us. And thus we will come face to face with an older adult: your spouse, your parent, your sibling, relative, friend, or "client", and there will be the negotiation and establishment of care.
Care is always contextual. In other words, care will depend on who is providing it and who is receiving it. There is the history of the relationship, personality and roles, the issues of privacy and autonomy, whether care is provided directly by you or acquired by you (with the help of others), the sharing of care or you are the main provider in all areas, and of course, whether care is there at all because of duty, guilt, affection, honor, compensation, faith, and love or a combination of any or all.
About Care4
Our Information & Referral program is centered on Care. We believe care is the "essential link" for adulthood and can be a rewarding and enriching experience, if cultivated and supported across the life course. The number four (4) symbolically represents the rounding or the cycling of the value of care across the life course (the four seasons of life) and in prior and future generations. We find caring "for" (Care4) someone in the prime adult years to be potentially a life affirming quality. It also establishes an intergenerational bridge through time. We also use four as the structure to identify many features of our service program.
The System is based on four main overarching values that collectively represent our philosophical foundation to care and these values are represented throughout the Care4 service model.
- supporting compassionate intergenerational care
- maintaining dignity for those providing and receiving care
- empowering individuals to make the most appropriate and timely choices in care
- building a "community" of care - we are all stakeholders in caring
Care4 was developed based on a conceptual model and integrated solution system for providing
information/consultation,
referral,
guidance, and
support
to the University of Utah Community.
