The Care Team Network

A care team is a group of volunteers working together to offer practical, emotional, and spiritual support to individuals and families with health care concerns or other special needs. This volunteer management approach was developed to support people living with HIV/AIDS, but was expanded in 1997 to support people with Alzheimer's disease, cancer, heart disease, stroke, or others with special needs such as frail elderly, homebound persons, or refugees. The care team approach provides volunteers with maximum time flexibility, a built-in support system, and the opportunity to offer a variety of skills. Most importantly, Team Members are asked first what each enjoys doing in helping others, rather than getting people to do something they do not like to do nor are inclined to do naturally. Team members do what they can, when they can, but in an organized approach with a built-in support system. Types of assistance provided by care teams include transportation to the doctor or grocery store, household or yard chores, errands, meals, social outings, visits, phone calls, and respite time for caregivers, to name a few.

The goal of this program is to use a team model to offer practical, emotional, and spiritual support to individuals and families with health care concerns or other special needs.

Based in Alabama, The Care Team Network was originally formed to support persons with HIV disease and has trained hundreds of care teams since it began in 1994. The Care Team Network trained over 100 hundred teams and 1200 volunteers in the first three years. The Care Team Network is now a training and resource center for care team development nationwide and people have attended their Care Team Leadership Training Conferences in forty states.