Strategic pillars of the Quebec Observatory on Caregiving

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CALL 811 (Info-Santé/Info-Social). If you need support or have concerns or questions about your health or that of a family member or friend, call 811 to speak to a nurse or psychosocial worker. Bilingual and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it’s free and confidential.

To speak to a caregiver counselor about a difficult situation, ask questions or get a referral, call l’Appui’s Caregiver Support Helpline.
Bilingual; open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

1 855 852-7784
[email protected]
www.lappui.org/en/

To find community resources offering caregiving information and support near you, consult l’Appui’s Resource Directory or Proche aidance Québec's list of member organizations (in French only).

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Four key pillars

Activities at the Observatory are structured around four strategic pillars. Complementary and interrelated, these different areas correspond to the functions conferred to the Observatory under the Act to recognize and support caregivers.

Knowledge monitoring and production
Knowledge mobilization and transfer
Stakeholder relations
Expertise and advising

Knowledge monitoring and production

This pillar largely concerns how information is consolidated within the Observatory.

Focused on the multiple facets of caregiving, it tracks the evolution, not just of caregiver needs and realities, but also of the best practices and the innovative measures and actions in effect both nationally and internationally.

It also focuses on gathering and analyzing a wide range of data — particularly statistical data — to generate reliable, essential and relevant knowledge around caregiving. This is accomplished through multiple approaches and methods that include monitoring current knowledge as well as analysis, evaluation and knowledge sharing.

Combining and integrating the knowledge of its varied target audiences and contributors (caregivers, health and social services professionals, scientific community, decision-makers) is what lets the Observatory issue new and relevant findings to better support and inform decision-making, research and action for all caregiving stakeholders.

A few achievements

In tandem with its expert advisory committee members and target audiences, the Observatory regularly identifies priority topics to focus its publications and activities To find out more about our current priority topics, sign up to our newsletter.

Caregiving is a complex subject encompassing diverse realities that are not always understood in the same way or to the same degree by society, stakeholders, or even caregivers themselves. The Observatory is seeking to mitigate this situation by working with caregivers, professionals, government authorities and researchers to develop a shared language and specific terminology around caregiving.

At present, there are no Quebec statistics with which to comprehensively identify caregiver characteristics or measure their health and wellness in any detail. As per Measure 2 of the 2021–2026 government action plan for caregivers, the Observatory is currently working with the health surveillance division of the health and social services ministry (MSSS) to produce a portrait of Quebec’s caregivers by 2026.

Knowledge mobilization and transfer

This pillar encompasses all efforts to distribute the knowledge amassed by the Observatory to its various target audiences.

These audiences are:

Caregivers
Non-governmental organizations
Government authorities
The scientific community
The health and social services network
The general public

The flow of knowledge is two-way, since the Observatory’s publications and activities are also informed by its various target audiences. Indeed, their active participation and regular input ensures, not just the relevance of the Observatory’s output, but also that the knowledge produced remains accessible to all and will be shared in a timely manner through the appropriate channels.

Much as with our actions to monitor and produce knowledge, our activities around this pillar aim to raise awareness, stimulate action, inform decision-making and drive research aimed at improving the quality life of caregivers and better equipping those who support them.

A few achievements

Inspired by promising strategies and tools, and informed by its knowledge monitoring and production activities, the Observatory continues to generate and share original, user-friendly and attractive publications in differing formats to keep its target audiences abreast of the latest advancements in caregiving knowledge.

Open to all and free of charge, the Observatory’s website serves as a platform for distributing its own publications as well as for amplifying the actions of and sharing publications from other caregiving stakeholders.

Complementing the website are the Observatory’s newsletter and social media presence, both of which help engage its target audiences and keep them informed on the latest caregiving knowledge from Quebec and elsewhere.

Stakeholder relations

This pillar concerns the activities and structures created to foster dialogue and collaboration with all caregiving stakeholders and encourage their engagement with the Observatory. This pillar is cross-cutting in the sense that its actions inform the other pillars.

As a rallying point, the Observatory is a unifying structure where knowledge can be pooled and efforts can be aligned among the various actors both in Quebec and elsewhere, with a view to fostering mutual support and making more largely known current efforts in the field of caregiving.

This cooperative outlook involves the many different groups and individuals who have a stake in caregiving: caregivers, the scientific community, government decision-makers, community organizations, and health & social services practitioners and other professionals.

The pillar’s aims are given concrete form through the Observatory’s various structures (committees, project teams, working groups, partnerships) and consultation strategies.

A few achievements

To maintain a comprehensive overview of the different caregiving stakeholders and any other organizations or individuals liable to have an interest in its mission, the Observatory regularly updates its stakeholder map— the diagram describing the roles, mandates and activities of each actor.

Furthermore, each year the Observatory seeks out opportunities to meet with various stakeholders, either by setting up meetings and events (e.g. symposia, brainstorming sessions) or participating in their own such activities. This allows the Observatory to get to know them better and explore the prospects of working together on caregiver-related projects or initiatives.

Based on this rich exchange, the Observatory has developed an intersectoral collaboration and partnership framework that describes the Observatory’s interactions with its stakeholders, as well as its process for fostering mutually beneficial collaboration and partnership activities.

Expertise and advising

Expertise and advising describes the process through which the Observatory draws on its accumulated caregiving knowledge, skills and know-how to assess, advise or recommend improvements, particularly to decision-makers in different sectors.

Article 36 of the Act to recognize and support caregivers states that the Observatory “enlightens the Minister by finding and reporting on current knowledge and trends, or those to be developed, concerning evaluation approaches and indicators to measure the quality of life, health and well-being of caregivers, and to measure the impact of the policy directions, measures and actions set out in the national policy for caregivers and the government action plan.”

In its advisory role, the Observatory maintains its autonomy from all public- and private-sector bodies. The opinions, advice and recommendations on caregiving issued by the Observatory are generated from a rigorous process based on reliable, relevant information and the integration of different forms of knowledge.

A few achievements

The Observatory intends to develop its credibility and visibility over time to become a recognized autonomous entity whose expertise and outlook can support intersectoral decision-making.

This entails developing a reference framework with which to specify targets and benchmarks (particularly regarding advice or recommendations), define expertise objectives, set out quality standards and establish evaluation criteria and indicators for current caregiving policies, actions and practices.