In Italy, more than seven million people provide daily care to a non-self-sufficient family member. Despite their crucial role, caregivers often remain invisible and lack adequate recognition within welfare systems. The needs arising from the caregiving experience are manifold—psychological, physical, social, and economic—yet they are rarely considered in an integrated way, leading to fragmented and disproportionate interventions.
To address this gap, a new multidimensional tool for stratifying care burden has been developed within the project "Caregiver Bergamo - Supporting Those Who Care", promoted by the Bergamo Health Protection Agency (ATS) in collaboration with work and organizational psychologists from the University of Bergamo.
The distinctiveness of the tool lies in its construction method: a participatory process involving researchers, health and social care professionals (Family and Community Nurses, Social Workers), and caregivers' associations. This approach fostered the integration of experiential knowledge and professional expertise.
The outcome is a multidimensional questionnaire that enables a systemic reading of the different dimensions of burden—physical, psychological, social, familial, economic, informational, logistical, and spiritual—producing differentiated profiles that can be shared among multiple actors in the service network. The aim is not only the scientific assessment of the phenomenon but also the creation of an operational instrument capable of guiding professional practices, promoting targeted interventions, and supporting institutional recognition processes for family caregivers.
The co-construction of the tool demonstrates how collaboration among academic research, professional practice, and social representation can generate innovative devices with strong transformative potential, laying the groundwork for a new integrated model of care support.