Stuart Kruger – Care Circle – The Circle of Care around the world

The experience of Stuart who is raising a child with autism has made him realise there is the absence of a social care system for non-professional carers and caregivers. If your loved ones have this kind of diagnosis which is chronic and complicated, you need to take all of your confidence and encouragement to step up to this journey with them. Non-clinical care takes approximately 8700+ hours annually, and it is usually on the family members’ shoulders. It means if these people are well supported, their loved ones with life-long diagnoses will be well supported as well. That is why, family members, relatives, and friends must have access to the relevant, affordable and valuable way of sharing information about social experiences, learnings, and subject matter expertise.

“There is a loved one with a health concern that is life-long. There are family members that want to help but are not able to acquire skills to intervene. It is traumatic and unsustainable,”

“Today no vehicle captures the journeys of non-clinical carers and caregivers.”

– Stuart Kruger, the founder of ‘CareCircle.’

What is CareCircle?

Stuart’s personal experience and the fact that his family is not alone along this journey have inspired him to create CareCircle.
The notion of therapy is to fix the problem, which makes the issues of life-long and complex diseases underrepresented in the healthcare system. CareCircle is trying to shift this paradigm by creating a comprehensive and sustainable mechanism of sharing non-clinical care experience in real time.
This project is a global initiative bringing together families, caregivers and clinical subject matter experts into a single, simple, and secure mobile platform which will include the series of applications related to different health conditions and disabilities.
The purpose is to use technology to bring affordable tools and expertise to the non-clinical environments of the households, schools, workplaces and other social settings through a highly valued community of both clinical and non-clinical caregivers.

“CareCircle represents the needs and desires of the caregivers and the loved ones who have chronic illnesses around the world,”

– Stuart Kruger, the founder of ‘CareCircle.’
Initial Projects

What is HELPA ?

Currently, CareCircle team is launching its first application HELPA which is designed to support the autism community. The next ones will be devoted to dementia and aged care. These applications will allow sharing of the experiences of non-clinical interventions in real time through the videos, pictures, and stories.  Non-professional caregivers will be able to get practical options from the therapists and other carers with similar situations from all over the world to make their daily routine easier. They will no longer have to wait for a doctor appointment and go to the clinic to get access to the instrumental aspects of everyday living with a particular health condition.

“We spoke to more than 100 families from Australia, New Zealand, the US, Asia, and they gave us feedback and scenarios that shaped the features of our applications,”

– Stuart Kruger, the founder of ‘CareCircle.’

For more information on HELPA and the APP Launch go to https://helpa.app

Business Model

The app is free to download for everyone. However, it has upgrade options inside, which depends on the amount of media and data the user would like to store in the application. The members of non-clinical caregivers’ community can have unlimited space for $4.99 per month. Therapists and subject matter experts can use the app to connect with the families in a different way beyond traditional means. The professionals set the rate, and the platform keeps the fee for each interaction. Likewise, various foundations, not-for-profit organisations, and service providers which have access to expertise and represent many families can also use the app to distribute their services to more people at the same time. There is also a small fee for research partners who are willing to analyse anonymised metadata in the platform, from participating customers, as part of research initiatives that improve the understanding of environmental contributions around a common individual with a diagnosis.

“Our theory of change is based on the mechanism of non-clinical interventions that we want to put in every household for every health condition or disability using evidence-informed inputs and observations of both professional and non-professional caregivers,”

“We believe that our customers will advocate for us, and the strength of our partners’ brands will give confidence to the independent non-clinical practices around the world,”

– Stuart Kruger, the founder of ‘CareCircle.’

Social Impact

The social impact of CareCircle is mostly qualitative, which is more complicated and more difficult to measure. It is about the emotional journey of carers and caregivers who have to deal with anxiety and stress as well as the lack of skills to intervene. CareCircle is designed to make these communities connected and feel more confident in taking care of their loved ones who have a particular health condition or disability. To measure this impact, the project has become the only social care platform which is the partner of the Australian Government Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC) which supports the efforts of fast-tracking research outcomes that can improve health through technology. Moreover, the project has recently entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with two leading providers in Australia and New Zealand, more information to follow.

“CareCircle is the entity through which we create partnerships with universities, communities, and research organisations to aggregate the data in our apps, to measure our social impact, and to increase awareness of the challenges caregivers experience among decision- and policymakers,”

– Stuart Kruger, the founder of ‘CareCircle.’

CareCircle is offering an innovative and unique vehicle not only for the community of non-clinical carers, but also for practitioners, experts, and not-for-profit organisations. It helps the families to acquire necessary skills to be able to intervene and to feel confident, and it allows the professionals to take their services to more people in a more sustainable way for a tiny price point. This initiative is going into the world without question.

For more information on HELPA and the APP Launch go to https://helpa.app

Article written by Anna Syropiatova

Marketing Intern

Greater Outcomes

www.greateroutcomes.com