Resources for Family Caregivers through Elizz

1 in 4 Canadians are family caregivers, with more than 8.1 million family caregivers in Canada — by 2020 the ratio will become 1 in 3. As caregivers fulfill their role of supporting a family member or friend, the stress, anxiety, guilt, isolation and uncertainty can be difficult, and can increase to a point of burn-out. SE Health recognized the needs of family caregivers, and in 2015 launched a new support and service for caregivers, called Elizz.

Elizz has become a source of information and inspiration to help family caregivers. It has connected with more than 4.5 million family caregivers internationally, sharing tools and resources that are easily accessible online.

There are more than 250 original articles available on Elizz.com for family caregivers, developed by SE Health in-house experts in social work, family caregiving, and home care.

Elizz offers services and support to fit every persons’ unique caregiving situation and is continually working to meet the growing and changing needs of family caregivers, providing information, resources and solutions where and when caregivers need them.

Through its work with family caregivers, Elizz discovered that many don’t recognize themselves as being family caregivers, and it can be helpful to understand where they are in their caregiving journey. To meet this need, Elizz developed the 5LifeStages of Caregiving assessment (Elizz.com/Lifestages). By answering a few simple questions, caregivers gain insight into their own caregiving journey and are provided information customized to their LifeStage.

This fall, Elizz will launch an Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot for family caregivers, called Elizzbot. Elizzbot can be accessed 24/7 through Facebook Messenger or through text messaging, giving family caregivers the ability to chat real-time whenever is convenient for them. The initial pilot with Elizzbot showed positive results, with 88 per cent of users responding positively when asked “did that help?”.