We are off to a great start with over 1000 supporters signing this petition in only a few days! Please help to continue the momentum by sharing this petition widely. Supporters have requested an elaboration on what this petition is asking for. Below are (1) the letter sent to Minister Duclos, (2) the 2012 CARP recommendations, and (3) the link to CARP's brief. An old Clairol commercial showed friends telling friends, telling friends telling friends...and so on. That is the magic we need to grow the signature count, so please share this petition by word of mouth, email contacts and social media. More signatures will magnify the message we are sending Ottawa. Thanks again for your continuing support. Here is the Letter sent to Minister Duclos: The Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Dear Minister Duclos: 8 million Canadians cared for loved ones who were ill or disabled in 2014 (CARP). They still do so unseen and unsung -- often 24/7 and to the very end. They are the parents of young children, mature children of aging parents, elderly parents of mature children, life-long partners or friends. For them, caregiving is a bitter-sweet service for which they do not receive the help, consolation or admiration they deserve because we take them for granted. Supports for caregivers are also inconsistent and inadequate across Canada because social services focus on supporting individuals and so overlook their caregivers. Left to themselves, families often find comfort in helping each other. Though this is worth encouraging, expecting them to do it is like adding another load on their shoulders as they struggle to keep their heads above water. That is why we are asking you to throw caregivers a lifeline so they stay afloat in turbulent waters. As Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, you can make caregiver support a top priority for your ministry, and make it a central part of your plan for Canada's future. With an aging population and more of us joining what the CBC calls "The Caregivers Club", your Ministry of Families, Children and Social Development is uniquely positioned to lighten families' emotional, physical, and financial burdens. How? By establishing federal standards in areas like respite care, stress management, life planning, navigating educational/health/legal systems, and forming social networks for mutual support, your ministry can ensure that service providers follow best practices in supporting family caregivers as well as their loved ones. In the process, you can fulfill your mandate from Prime Minister Trudeau -- "provide more direct help to those who need it". It is an ideal time to set caregiver support as a top priority. Parliament is setting the stage for acceding to the CRPD's Optional Protocol that safeguards disability rights, so as Canada strives to live up to its promise to protect its most vulnerable citizens, supporting their caregivers will become more important than ever. After all, supporting the caregivers ultimately helps them to provide better care for their loved ones. Finally, by making caregiver support a national priority, the federal government can lead the provinces and territories in the same direction, and set the foundation of a national strategy to support families and caregivers after the next election. To those who argue this is unaffordable, Minister Duclos, you can reply that we cannot afford to continue taking our caregivers for granted. After all, the value of their unpaid work was estimated to be $25 billion a year almost ten years ago, excluding the savings achieved by supporting people with disabilities in communities rather than costly institutions. Clearly, paying them more attention is the right thing to do. Indeed, to paraphrase our Prime Minister, providing sufficient supports to caregivers is also the smart thing to do since, as already noted, supporting caregivers ultimately helps them to take better care of their loved ones. The idea of a comprehensive caregiver strategy has been advanced before by others, including CARP, which has urged Canadians to appreciate the contributions of informal caregivers. If society affords them proper and adequate supports, it will complement the promise to protect vulnerable citizens (CRPD) and ultimately make Canadians proud. Indeed, if we are to fulfill Canada's promise to the UN, and live up to our reputation as a compassionate society, we must protect vulnerable citizens by supporting their caregivers. To repeat, we must stop taking caregivers for granted and start taking proper care of them. In closing, your attention is drawn to the recently launched CHANGE.ORG petition -- SOS: Lifeline for Caregivers -- which asks you and all Canadians to hear their desperate call for help. In due course, you will receive updates, signatures and comments. Once the CRPD Protocol is adopted, your responses to this appeal will be shared with the 27,200 Canadians who supported the Protocol petition. They will be invited to sign and follow the progress of this campaign as well. The link to this petition is as follows: https://www.change.org/p/jean-yves-duclos-sos-lifeline-for-caregivers The following link is to "The Caregivers Club" which was recently aired by the CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/cbcdocspov/episodes/the-caregivers-club/public/js/main Thanking you for considering this urgent appeal, we eagerly await your reply. Sincerely, Salvatore (Sal) Amenta, PhD Here are the 2012 CARP recommendations (For more information on CARP, go to www.CARP.ca): CARP is calling for a more comprehensive approach to support caregivers and meet their various needs. CARP calls for: 1. Financial support: • Greater financial support should be provided to caregivers to relieve the financial burdens of caregiving. For example, the current federal caregiver tax credit should be increased and made refundable. • Financial supports should be available for all caregivers who provide heavy care and not limited to certain type of care, such as the Compassionate Care benefit’s “terminal illness” requirement. • Long-term care (LTC) insurance can be an effective way to provide financial support for caregivers. Germany’s universal public LTC insurance, for example, provides caregivers with cash and/or in-kind benefits when LTC is needed. 2. Workplace protection for caregiving • Workplace protection should be available for informal caregivers balancing caregiving and work responsibilities. For example, Ontario’s Family Caregiver Leave Bill would provide 8 weeks of job-protected leave for employees providing care for a family member with a serious medical condition. • 90% of Canadian workers are covered by provincial labour codes but federally regulated industries are not. Federally regulated industries should also have job protection coverage for caregiving responsibilities. • Proactive caregiver leave and support policies 3. Respite care options for heavy care providers • Heavy care providers should be given respite care options to mitigate the high risk of their own physical, mental, and emotional health deterioration. For example, countries, such as Germany and the UK, have long-term care insurance that will help meet costly caregiving needs. In Germany, family caregivers can get up to 4 weeks of vacation while using their insurance benefits, which can be received in cash and/or in-kind services for long-term care, providing some respite care for caregivers. 4. Funding for home care • More funding is needed for home care. CARP members identified government funding for home care as a priority in enhancing the caregiver-patient relationship. 5. Integrated training and support for caregivers with formal health care system • Formal training and support should be provided for informal caregivers and can be done via the formal health care system. For example, when a care recipient first comes in contact with the health care system due to an acute event, the health care system has the opportunity to also work with the informal caregiver from the start with resources and support. And here is the link to the entire brief: http://zweb-s3.uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/carp/2014/02/Caregiver-Brief-Feb-2014.pdf