Military personnel: Opportunities exist to improve access to services supporting caregivers of dependents with special needs : report to congressional committees
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Alternate Title(s):
- Opportunities exist to improve access to services supporting caregivers of dependents with special needs: report to congressional committees
- Contributor(s):
- United States. Government Accountability Office, issuing body. United States. Congress, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : United States Government Accountability Office, June 2022
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Caregiver Burden -- economics Disabled Persons -- statistics & numerical data Government Regulation Military Health -- statistics & numerical data Military Personnel National Health Insurance, United States -- statistics & numerical data United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Why GAO did this study. Caregivers of dependents with special needs can experience negative consequences from their caregiving roles, such as stress and lost wages. Military families with special needs dependents face additional caregiving challenges due to frequent moves to new duty stations. To address the needs of these military families, DOD provides caregiver support services, such as respite care, through its military branches and the TRICARE health care program. Congress included a provision in statute for GAO to review certain caregiving services available to military families. This report (1) describes respite care and other key services for supporting caregivers available to active duty military families through ECHO and other programs, and (2) examines barriers military families may face when seeking to access respite care and actions DOD has taken to address those barriers. To perform this work, GAO reviewed DOD program policies regarding caregiver benefits. GAO also interviewed DOD officials, TRICARE representatives, state Medicaid officials, and stakeholder organizations representing military families and the special needs community. What GAO Recommends. GAO is making two recommendations to DOD, including 1) to communicate in writing that there is no TRICARE requirement for another adult to remain in the home during the provision of ECHO respite care, and 2) to collect and analyze data regarding the utilization of ECHO respite care. DOD concurred with both recommendations.
- Copyright:
- The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (iii, 39 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918470886106676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918470886106676