Intergenerational Caregiving Teams: Reconceptualizing Youth Caregivers in Kinship Care with Aging Adults to Inform Service Delivery

Informal, family caregiving arrangements are a critical part of the overall health and social care system. However, many family caregivers remain underrecognized and as a result, underserved in programming and policy. These caregivers include the rising number of aging adults caring for children through kinship arrangements, traditionally known as "grandfamilies" - and children who are in their care supporting an aging adult with age-related illness, injury, or disability, known as "youth caregivers," The Aging GRANDfamilies Expanding Healthcare Access Partnership Project(AGE HAPPY) reconceptualizes youth caregivers in kinship care arrangements with aging adults as "intergenerational caregiving teams" and provides emerging evidence of their existence as well as mutual challenges and benefits for intergenerational well-being. The project provides a blueprint for a community-academic-policy partnership designed to recognize this unique population, use lived-experience and community member input to reform service delivery opportunities, and advocate for policy to support and improve the well-being of aging adults with youth caregivers in intergenerational caregiving teams.