2007 PRSSA Bateman Case Study Competition

Project Brief

Background:

In October 2004, the National Family Caregivers Association (NFCA), and the National Alliance for Caregiving (Alliance), launched Family Caregiving…it’s not all up to you! (FC101), a national public education program sponsored by Eisai Inc., a New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company.

While one out of five Americans (over 50 million) provides daily care for a chronically ill or aging adult, most do not view themselves as family caregivers. FC101, supported by a Web site, public service announcements and other initiatives, was developed to encourage family caregivers to acknowledge their role and seek available assistance. The Web site, www.familycaregiving101.org, provides busy caregivers with comprehensive help quickly, easily and at the level of detail they desire.

Caregivers often feel isolated and experience stress from the burden of caregiving itself, as well as from balancing work and other family responsibilities, thereby putting themselves, the care receiver, their family and their employment at risk. When testing messages for FC101, family caregiver respondents related best to messages that suggested (1) they were not alone, but rather part of a nationwide community; (2) that they might be overlooking community support resources; and (3) that getting help could well be in the best interest of their loved ones.

In addition, formal research conducted by NFCA and the Alliance established the fact that caregiving in the 21st century is not only a personal issue, but a larger public education one as well. According to research results , “…given the huge amount of materials that have been written for family caregivers, there is a paucity of information that strives to help them become self aware, to self identify and develop a feeling of empowerment.”

Since the social issues of family caregiving can include a broad range of age groups, it is important to note that the focus of this program is adult caregivers caring for adult loved ones. For the purpose of the Bateman Case Study Competition, the adult caregiver is a person who is 18 years or older. The adult care recipient is a chronically ill or aging person age 50 years or older who is unable to care for themselves.

The typical caregiver is a 46-year-old woman who works, has at least some college education, and cares for her 75-year-old widowed mother who lives nearby .

Who are the priority publics?

Who needs to know or understand; who needs to be involved; whose support do you need; who will be affected?

• Adult family caregivers in the community
• Families impacted by caregiving
• The media

Who is “the client”?

In this case study, “the client” is the public education program: Family Caregiving…it’s not all up to you! (FC101). It is the entity that your program will address relative to its goals, objectives, audiences, strategies, tactics and evaluation. The stakeholders in the development of this program are the National Family Caregivers Association, the National Alliance for Caregiving and its sponsor, Eisai Inc.

The National Family Caregivers Association (NFCA) is a grassroots organization whose mission is to empower family caregivers to take actions that will improve their life and the life of their loved one by providing them with education, support, and a public voice. Reaching across the boundaries of age, relationship and diagnosis, NFCA addresses the common needs and concerns of all family caregivers. For more information, please visit www.thefamilycaregiver.org.

Established in 1996, the National Alliance for Caregiving (Alliance) is a nonprofit coalition of over 40 national organizations that focuses on issues of family caregiving across the age span. The Alliance was created to conduct research, do policy analysis, develop national programs for caregivers, and increase public awareness of caregiving issues. The Alliance’s founding partners were AARP, the American Society on Aging, the Department of Veterans Affairs, NCOA and n4a. For more information, please visit www.caregiving.org.

Eisai Inc. is a U.S. pharmaceutical subsidiary of Eisai Co., Ltd., a research-based human health care (hhc) company that discovers, develops and markets products in more than 30 countries. Eisai focuses its efforts in three therapeutic areas: neurology, gastrointestinal disorders and oncology/critical care. The company’s hhc mission is to satisfy unmet medical needs and increase benefits to patients and their families, including caregivers. For more information, please visit www.eisai.com.

The Opportunity:

The 2007 Bateman Case Study Competition offers two challenging opportunities that will help prepare students for entering the workforce. New this year, programs can be developed off-campus. Your program can involve many of the key publics you will engage in your professional careers such as a target audience (demographic groups, geographic areas, etc.) and the media, as an audience, a strategy, a tactic, and a means for measurement.

Plus, given Eisai’s sponsorship, this year’s Bateman also gives teams an opportunity to participate in a corporate social responsibility program, an emerging field of public relations that can help you integrate economic, social and environmental imperatives into your public relations programs as a successful practicing professional.

Objectives

• To effectively raise awareness of family caregiver issues among all key publics in order to improve quality of life for all concerned
• To communicate the physical, social and emotional risk factors of family caregivers and their need to get help, to take care of themselves and to understand that they are not alone
• To cause family caregivers to act on their need for help in a measurable behavior
• To enlighten family caregivers regarding available resources for help and information at the non-profit Web site, www.familycaregiving101.org
• To develop a program with research, planning, implementation and evaluation in order to extend FC101 beyond the initial launch phase and drive more traffic to the web site

Resources available:

• Formal research conducted by NFCA and the Alliance (on-line)
• Online Web site for NFCA: www.thefamilycaregiver.org
• Online Web site for the Alliance: www.caregiving.org
• FC101 Web site: www.familycaregiving101.org. Teams are welcomed to use feature articles posted on this site verbatim or for suggested messages.
• Self Awareness In Family Caregiving; A Report on the Communication Environment; www.thefamilycaregiver.org; go to “Who are Family Caregivers” and click on “Surveys and Reports.”
• CSR…a cause for success: A message from Eisai Inc. on the importance of corporate social responsibility in today’s global community (DVD available in introductory kit)
• Students can and should conduct their own local analysis and include any local publics that should be considered to this campaign.

Once PRSSA receives the intent-to-enter forms, FC101 will provide many public service materials, team identity items for community activities, a family caregiving FAQ sheet, and a contact page of whom to call for more information or for scheduling interviews with NFCA and Alliance principals.

ADDENDUM

Definition of a family caregiver:

• A person who manages or provides direct assistance to a loved one who needs help with day-to-day activities because of a chronic condition, cognitive limitations, or aging.

• Direct assistance includes helping with Activities of Daily Living (ADL) such as supporting the care recipient with getting in and out of the bed and chairs, dressing, getting to and from the toilet, bathing, dealing with incontinence or diapers, and with feeding.

• In addition, a person is a family caregiver if he or she provides Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) such as supplying transportation, housework, grocery shopping, preparing meals, arranging for outside services, managing finances, and giving medications.

• Caregiving in the U.S. Key Findings: 2004, National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, funded by MetLife Foundation: http://www.caregiving.org/data/04keyfindings.pdf

Terminology:

• The term “community” in this case study brief relates to the “family caregiving community” as a target audience. It does not attempt to identify the off-campus boundaries of any given program. Teams will use their research to define the geographic and demographic public targeted for their individual programs.

The Client - Family Caregiving...it's not all up to you! (FC101)
What is FC101 is and what does it offer?

• The outreach program is called Family Caregiving…it’s not all up to you (FC101). This effort is national in scope, and includes radio, magazine and newspaper public service placements that connect family caregivers to information and services that can help improve their lives and the level of care they can offer their loved ones. Public service messages, crafted with the assistance of family caregivers themselves, assure caregivers across America that they are not alone, and encourage caregivers to take better care of themselves and their loved one by visiting the site and asking for help.

• The goal of the program is to improve the quality of life for the family caregiver and the care recipient. A primary objective of the national program is to raise awareness of family caregiver issues to caregivers and their families through strategic communication initiatives that will influence our target audience to seek help at www.familycaregiving101.org-- the critical tactic or tool in the campaign.

• The Web site is designed to provide caregivers with the basic tools, skills and information they need to protect their own physical and mental health while they provide high quality care for their loved one.

What is Corporate Social Responsibility?

Source: Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia-- Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an expression used to describe what some see as a company’s obligation to be sensitive to the needs of all of the stakeholders in its business operations. A company’s stakeholders are all those who are influenced by, or can influence, a company’s decisions and actions. These can include (but are not limited to): employees, customers, suppliers, community organizations, subsidiaries and affiliates, joint venture partners, local neighborhoods, investors, and shareholders (or a sole owner).

Some recommended on-line resources include:

• Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategies to Create Business and Social Value - Introduction; Harvard Business ... This new program is designed to provide senior corporate executives with the knowledge, practical tools, and frameworks for integrating social responsibility as part of their corporate strategy. www.exed.hbs.edu/programs/csr.
• Corporate Social Responsibility, www.ssireview.org. Stanford Social Innovation Review. Research and insights on corporate social responsibility.

Examples of community-based family caregiver resources (may not be available in every community).These agencies and organizations, dedicated to volunteerism, often focus on support of the chronically ill or aging homebound person in the community, and are supported by private and public grants and funding sources.

• Faith in Action - a national volunteer movement that brings together religious congregations from many faiths to help people who are aging and chronically ill. Find a Faith in Action program near you or read volunteer stories, www.fiavolunteers.org. Category: Community Service and Volunteerism Organizations

• National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a) Making it Easier for Millions of Older Persons Nationwide to Live Independently, www.n4a.org.

• Eldercare Locator number for local area agencies on aging (local affiliate of n4a, the national organization): 1-800-677-1116.

Judging Criteria:

1. Four Step Process (60 points total)
   1. Research: Thoughtful analysis of the situation; primary and secondary research; fact-finding to determine statistics, trends and attitudes in marketplace in relation to not-for-profit; peer research (e.g. focus groups, surveys, etc.); use of information to determine tactics. (15 points)
   2. Planning: Development of public relations/development plan, including statement of goal, objectives and strategies, key messages, audiences, description of tactics, timeline and evaluation. Should include rationale for design of plan. (15 points)
   3. Implementation: Outline how you implemented the tactics; detail and document your activities. (15 points)
   4. Evaluation: Provide the methods of evaluation you used to measure the campaign results. Did the methods support the campaign objectives? Did you achieve the intended results? (15 points)

2. Effectiveness: How well did the team understand the situation on the local level? How well did the public relations and development communications plan apply to the situation? How well did they work with and meet the expectations of the client? Was it appropriate for the audience and community? Did the results of the campaign meet your objectives? Did the message reach the intended target audience? Were there demonstrated results based upon the planning and implementation? (20 points)

3. Creativity: What creativity did the team show in the development of the public relations/development campaign? What kinds of creative strategies and tactics were proposed/pursued in the campaign? How did the creativity positively affect the results? What parts of the campaign have legacy effects for the community and FC101? (20 points)

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