Caregivers for those suffering from dementia felt better about themselves and their jobs through a modified intervention program created by community agencies and researchers at U-M and the University of Alabama.
This new program resulted in caregivers feeling less burdened, depressed and frustrated with clients.
The study is one of the first caregiver intervention efforts designed from an empirically-based treatment and used by a social service agency, says Louis Burgio, a professor in the School of Social Work and research professor at the Institute of Gerontology.
“The vast majority of NIH-funded psycho-social clinical trial interventions never make it into the community, which makes this study unique because caregivers in the community are benefiting from the findings,” says Burgio, whose research in applied gerontology focuses on developing interventions for the behavioral complications of dementia in nursing homes and working with dementia caregivers to ease the stress and burden of caregiving.
Researchers established a partnership with the Alabama Department of Senior Services to help it change the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer’s Caregiver Health (REACH) II intervention created in clinical trials for use in four Area Agencies on Aging.
“Most importantly, through these procedures all aspects of the program were managed by the community agencies,” Burgio says.
The condensed REACH intervention, which was called REACH OUT, was delivered to 272 dementia caregivers during four home visits and three telephone calls for four months. The assessment examined pre- and post-treatment effects on 236 caregivers who completed at least three of the four sessions.
Significant positive effects were found on caregiver frustration, depression, caregiver health, care recipient behavior problems and mood, and two of four care recipient risk behaviors. Caregivers reported care recipients were less likely to be left unsupervised and wander.
Researchers also conducted training workshops for case managers to assist agencies’ staff.
Burgio says this project suggests the latest REACH intervention can be modified for effective use in agencies on aging.
The study’s co-authors at the University of Alabama were Irene Collins, Bettina Schmid, Tracy Wharton, Debra McCallum and Jamie DeCoster.
The findings appear in the recent issue of the journal Gerontologist.
