EmpathyTech Conference Keynote Highlights Caregiver Strengths and Supports
For Alexandra Drane, empathy-driven innovation begins with self-awareness and appreciation for the caregiving role that over 40% of us play in our loved ones’ lives. In a keynote to open the Philadelphia EmpathyTech Conference, she encouraged attendees to consider how to use technology, infused with compassion, to support and celebrate unpaid caregivers. The day-long conference on November 19,2024 was hosted by Pletly and NewCourtland and brought together nurses, researchers, physicians, innovators, and caregivers.
In the spirit of “putting on your own air mask before helping others,” Drane urged the audience to recognize their own roles as caregivers, assess the intensity of their responsibilities, and access existing resources. Drane, Co-Founder and CEO of ARCHANGELS, highlighted her organization’s tools, resources, and collaborations that support unpaid caregivers. More information about this work is available here.
She demonstrated ARCHANGEL’s Caregiver Intensity IndexTM, a two-minute tool to measure how caregiving is affecting someone’s well-being and how well they are coping with potential stressors such as money and family disagreements. Caregivers receive a score that puts them in the red, yellow, or clear, with red indicating high-intensity caregiving and inadequate support. Depending on the audience and timing, one-quarter to one-third of caregivers are in the red, with 90% of them having an adverse mental health impact. Then the platform leads them to existing resources targeted to their needs, while also gathering population-level data that can be used for policy and advocacy efforts. ARCHANGELS then partners with cities, states, employers and more, to drive economic impact with campaigns in Massachusetts, New York State, Philadelphia, and Michigan.
Drane highlighted the importance of a strength-based approach to innovations for caregivers. In that spirit, she described the Care Badge Initiative, a new ARCHANGELS-Joint Commission collaboration to recognize and celebrate caregiving skills and to translate those skills into upward mobility through distribution of a free, virtual Care Badge. The badge offers “a way for you to be seen, celebrated, and supported for all you do to care for others, then translate those skills into new opportunities.” The Care Badge can be collected by caregivers but also can be gifted to others to recognize their caregiving role. This badge can be used on LinkedIn, on a resume, and on social media to signal that the recipient has valuable skills that are relevant to the current care economy.
In highlighting the conference’s goal of supporting empathy-driven innovation, Drane pointedly discussed the need for caregivers to have empathy for themselves. She describes ARCHANGELS as “shameless hustlers for good” with their platform being used in impact-oriented ways to drive improvements in mental and physical health, productivity, retention, and other drivers of top and bottom-line impact. Drane’s presentation helped set up the tone of empathy and compassion for this conference.
