Supporting the Family Caregiver: The Burden of Serious Illness
What You’ll Learn
- Acknowledge the discrepancy between what is expected of family caregivers of people with serious illness and the resources provided to them in today’s health care system
- Recognize the multiple roles filled by family caregivers across the disease trajectory
- Identify common precipitants of burden experienced by family caregivers
- Recognize the critical role that all providers play in assessing and supporting caregivers from the first point of contact and across the illness trajectory
What You’ll Earn
Only CAPC members who are logged in can earn the following free Continuing Education Credits:
- Case Management: 1.00 CE
- Medicine: 0.75 CME
- Nursing: 1.00 CNE
To take this course, log in. Or, check here to see if your organization is a member.
LoginTake the course
Take the post-test
Complete evaluation
Download your certificate
Tools & Resources
Self-reported caregiver assessment.
Seminal article on the experience of caregiving. New England Journal of Medicine, 1999.
Course citations. Center to Advance Palliative Care, 2016.
CAPC National Seminar Intensive Session, 2016.
Tool used to draw a family care map to visually depict all of the people involved with the caregiver.
Information for patients and families about palliative care.
The National Alliance for Caregiving offers a variety of materials to support family caregivers, ranging from booklets and tip sheets to webcasts and conference materials.
A list of takeaways for care managers as they support the family caregiver.
Course Faculty
Andrew E. Esch, MD, MBA. Consultant, Center to Advance Palliative Care.
Philip Higgins, PhD, LICSW. President, Lighthouse Counseling of Salem, Inc.
Peer Reviewers
Elizabeth Mann, MD. Fellow, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Contact information: For answers to frequently asked questions about CAPC courses, read the Online Course FAQ. For technical questions about course activity, email membership@capc.org. For questions about continuing education credits, contact 201-957-0077.

Provided by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.