CARES' objectives are to:

1. assess aging network knowledge and strategies designed to assist caregivers in utilizing ECS in their own homes or in the homes of care recipients;
2. educate aging network service providers on how to effect systems change in delivering home modification and assistive devices;
3. stimulate aging network activities that address physical caregiver burdens and stresses, including working with other key entities such as Centers for Independent Living; and
4. test and evaluate strategies by service providers to enhance caregiver ECS for replication by others.

CARES will create:

1. an Issue Brief: "Systems Building to Enhance Caregiver Adaptations to Reduce Environmental Stress;"
2. workshop presentations to be given at the conferences of the Administration on Aging (AoA) and National Family Caregiver Association, for publishing on the AoA web site; and
3. A Case Study Booklet on "Successful Models of Systems Change: Increasing Utilization of Environmental Coping Strategies by Caregivers" for use by AAAs and other groups to initiate systems change.