Families often shoulder the weight of Alzheimer's care. Yet rarely have the services and systems needed to navigate their everyday.
In 2024, Public Works launched a caregiver-led research initiative to bring these lived experiences into full view and make visible the forms of labor that too often go unseen, unsupported, and unmeasured.
Unlike traditional research, this initiative centers caregivers as co-designers and uses real-time data to illuminate the system conditions shaping their experiences.
The work is still in progress, but the need is undeniable. Across senior living, healthcare, and community health ecosystems, caregivers face rising workload complexity, fragmented tools and workflows, and increasing emotional burden—factors that directly shape care quality, retention, and cost.
Our goal is simple but essential: to place caregivers’ lived experience at the foundation of system and operational redesign. By capturing real-time moments of effort, strain, and meaning, this initiative aims to equip organizations with the clarity needed to strengthen well-being, reduce friction, and improve the continuity and quality of care.
As insights emerge, they will guide actionable, evidence-based strategies that help build care environments where caregivers feel supported—and where clients, residents, and families experience the benefits of a stronger, more aligned system.
