Bhavana Issar, the Founder & CEO of a social venture Caregiver Saathi which supports family caregivers as companions for their well-being across a variety of psycho-social needs through coaching, counselling, support groups and training. She is a passionate person with diverse interests. After her corporate stint in HR, she is an Organization consultant in the area of Change, Leadership Development and Organization Building. She is a Fellow and facilitator in Process Work with Sumedhas Academy for Human Context, Gestalt OD Practitioner.
Her story was included in the book by bestselling author Rashmi Bansal-Touch the Sky: Stories of women across India who are changing their destiny.
She is a motorcyclist and believes motorcycling has helped her push the boundaries of the body and mind. She supports women motorcyclists to realize their dreams.
Incubees: Tell us about your organization ‘Carergiver Saathi’ and what are the kind of services/products do you offer?
Bhavana Issar: Home-based care depends on the competence and mental health of the primary caregiver, who tends to be invisible and under-served. There are severe mental and emotional health implications for the family caregiver when there is long-term care for those with a terminal illness or life limitations.
Caregiver Saathi is an ecosystem of well-being and healing for family caregivers. A one-stop portal for them to access validated content, community, learning resources and tools, and a curated set of service providers. Our objective is to make caregiving convenient and improve the life of the caregiver and the person receiving care. We aim to provide a human-led and tech-driven guide for the caregiver.
Services we offer currently:
- Support Groups & Counselling:
Our support groups are safe spaces for caregivers to lean into, share, learn and grow. We provide medical condition-specific support groups connecting active and experienced caregivers. This includes Dementia, ALS, Renal Illness, and Cancer. We will be beginning two Mental Illness support groups soon. Caregiver Saathi also provides grief counselling through our healing circles -love and loss sessions and 1-1 counselling based on individual requirements.
- Learning/Training programmes:
Caregiver Coaching: We are leveraging the existing skilled support system to be aligned to the needs of a primary caregiver of people with chronic conditions. Our Caregiver Coaching Masterclass is for Life & Executive Coaches, Yoga Therapists, Counsellors and Financial Advisors provides an in-depth understanding of the challenges in the life of a caregiver and provide customized solutions to help them manage their caregiving journey better.
Emotional First Aid Training course is for young adults. It teaches participants how to assist a friend, family member, or other members of the community who is going through a crisis situation and needs emotional support. This course helps to understand the fundamentals of demonstrating emotional first aid and addresses myths and beliefs in mental health. We have certified 56 participants to date.
Facilitator Training to conduct Support Groups– This 3-day course is for those who would like to facilitate support groups. Caregiver Saathi has support groups for caregivers navigating dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, renal diseases and grief healing circles. We provide customized training on skills to cultivate for being a facilitator of a safe space to share one’s feelings and thoughts where nobody judges.
Courses for Professional Caregivers: An exclusive 12-week certification course in association with ECHO, India on “Practices of Compassionate Caring” for professional caregivers or care counsellor looking to upgrade their skills. This course will focus on varied case studies and live sessions from industry experts on how compassionate one can be while caring for an individual navigating chronic/ terminal illness
- Corporate Services
We offer advisory services, learning interventions, employee well-being support and CSR partnership opportunities to corporates for them to build a compassionate and caregiver friendly workplace.
A considerable percentage of employees across workforces have either direct or indirect family caregiving responsibilities and this number is expected to grow. Modern day organisations need to progressively shift their focus towards the well-being of employees, who are also caregivers for their productivity at the workplace.
- HCP services: We partner with doctors, health practitioners and healthcare institutions to build a supportive community for the caregivers and also enable them in bringing “care” back into healthcare. We offer them workshops to co-create caregiving knowledge transfer, importance of self-care and building relationships; certification program covering techniques of self-care, stress management, non-violent communication, holistic care etc. Enhancing Healthcare System Productivity through Leadership workshops, improving layout design, productivity and efficiency trainings etc.
- Home Care Solutions for Caregivers – In partnership with healthcare service providers, we offer placement of care attendants and nurses for family caregivers based on their requirements.
- Awareness & Education: Caregiver Saathi runs a series of online programmes (webinars and podcast) focusing on sharing stories of family caregivers, their challenges and building awareness about caregiving in India. This includes Gentle Warrior Conversations – with Caregivers, Caregiver Diaries Podcast – anonymous journal entries of caregivers, Caregiving in Print & Pictures – conversation with authors and filmmakers on caregiving through their books and movies and Compassionate Caring – expert series educating caregivers to help better their caregiving journey.
We have also created handbooks on Managing Grief at workplaces for leaders – 2 versions, Resilience and Well-being handbook for Caregivers
Incubees: How did you start your journey of being an entrepreneur as well as a well-wisher?
Bhavana Issar: The genesis of Caregiver Saathi lies at the core of my life’s personal experiences and journey.
In 1999, when I had lost my father to a rare neurological condition called Shy-drager Syndrome (a condition similar to Multiple Sclerosis or Parkinsons), I wanted to honour his memory by doing something in the area. Simultaneously, my internship in Process work with Sumedhas Academy for Human context significantly shaped my journey as a person and one of the Meta labs, Learning Theatre compelled me to think about my purpose, my dharma.
My real-life experiences during the years of his illness where my mother was the primary caregiver and research over the years convinced me that the well-being of the caregiver is pivotal to the well-being and healing of the patient. When I was trying to figure out what I would like to do, I realised that, while a lot was being done to help patients with these medical conditions, the caregiver remained invisible and their needs unarticulated. Our family structure is getting increasingly fragmented especially in urban India, leading to caregiving responsibilities on the shoulder of one individual, and in most cases on women and the fact that a caregiving journey can have an emotional and physical impact on the caregiver and their life remains largely unacknowledged.
I decided to combine my education and work experience as an organisational consultant, coupled with my life’s experiences and my desire to honour my father’s memory and my mother’s caregiving journey through Caregiver Saathi.
At Caregiver Saathi we aim to bring a sense of well-being and healing for the patient and the caregiver and create an integrated eco-system of support and companionship for the caregiver.
Incubees: Do you think your organization has improved over time and what are the challenges you had to face while transitioning into an Entrepreneur?
Bhavana Issar: My journey as an entrepreneur has only just begun – I have spent a significant time researching and studying this very nascent idea and creating a blueprint of what would be meaningful for the times, the needs of the people and the role I would like to play. A significant amount of time was spent crystalizing my thoughts and giving shape to my ideas. The driving force for me has been staying true to my purpose and persevering to push the boundaries.
The biggest challenge in this journey is to shift the social narrative around well-being, healthcare and caregiving.
In our society, expectations from family, and the nature of family caregivers tend to be unrecognized, unappreciated and deprioritized, even by themselves. There are many ways in which a caregiver is challenged and often the caregiver also needs care, emotional support, understanding, easy access to information, guidance from experts and wisdom from others who have similar experiences. It is our endeavour to bring it all together and make it easy to access for the caregiver and highlight their significance and role in the well-being and healing of the patient.
It is gratifying when most people I meet and explain the idea to, find it a perspective and a concept that they haven’t heard of enough – it feels like we are pushing the boundaries of thought and creating new possibilities. However, being in this place also means that there are not many best practices or examples to follow. There are however many business models and approaches that could be surrogates for inspiration.
While there have been many months and years of arduous and lonely travel in giving shape to this idea, it is very satisfying when people relate with the concept, join in through the volunteer programs or internships and convey their faith. The confidence and the encouragement of mentors, many friends and well-wishers are what have helped me stay the course and persevere.
Incubees: Tell us about your team and what keeps them motivated?
Bhavana Issar: We have a significantly small but qualified team of 7 including me. 5 of them are full-time fellows who have diverse backgrounds in terms of knowledge and are individually responsible for running the different sections of the organisation.
It is interesting to note, that all the fellows on board are women (un-intentional), some of them with over 10 years of work experience in fields like communication, banking and academics. This motley crew has been instrumental in enhancing the mission of the organisation and continues to do.
Their personal life experiences as primary or secondary caregivers are one of the key motivating factors and help them to connect with the vision of our organisation. Also, this team has been at the centre of developing our services, community and overall brand. We have touched many new milestones together and every new success (however small), motivates us further.
Incubees: Tell us about your marketing strategies, how do you market your organization ‘Caregiver Saathi’?
Bhavana Issar: Our aim is to build a community-based healthcare service, an ecosystem of well-being for caregivers. We are currently focusing on building our community of caregivers, well-wishers of caregivers, healthcare practitioners, counsellors, and coaches, organisations – all of whom are directly or indirectly impacted by caregiving.
Our promotions are primarily online – through our website, social media, emailers and WhatsApp communication. We also have a group of ambassadors and mentors who help us in promoting our brand through their network.
Incubees: What would you like to address the budding Entrepreneurs?
Bhavana Issar: Being an entrepreneur is glamorous on the outside but requires a lot of hard work, passion and perseverance. I’m in no position to give advice as I’m still learning to be one.
Having said that, what has been the most important element in my journey is the one that I’ve had to navigate in my mind, continually care-fronting (confronting with care) myself, my biases and my assumptions… Being open to being challenged and simultaneously being coached – having to hold my ground and yet incorporating new perspectives, holding the big picture while going after the finer details, being critical and cynical while being hopeful, being serious and determined on one hand and being playful and adventurous on the other…. All of this is a fine art and absolutely essential to an entrepreneurial adventure!
I really wish that many many young and not-so-young express and discover themselves by undertaking an entrepreneurial journey… Especially one that addresses core social challenges. It is our “dharma” to inch the world towards our dreams.
To know more. Visit: https://www.caregiversaathi.co.in/home
