Psychosocial telephone intervention for dementia caregivers: A randomized, controlled trial

Abstract

Background Identifying effective and accessible interventions for dementia caregivers is critical as dementia prevalence increases. Objective Examine the effects of a telephone-based intervention on caregiver well-being. Design Randomized, controlled trial. Setting Academic medical center. Participants 250 distressed, family, dementia caregivers. Intervention Caregivers randomized to receive 16 telephone contacts over 6 months of either the Family Intervention: Telephone Tracking–Caregiver (FITT-C) or Telephone Support (TS). Outcome Primary outcome variables were family caregivers’ depressive symptoms, burden, and reactions to care recipients’ behavior problems at 6 months. Results The FITT-C intervention resulted in significantly improved caregiver depressive symptoms (p = 0.003; 27% net improvement) and less severe reactions to care-recipient depressive behaviors (p = 0.009; 29% net improvement) compared to the control condition (TS). Conclusion An entirely telephone-based intervention improves caregivers’ depressive symptoms and reactions to behavior problems in the care recipient and is comparable to reported results of face-to-face interventions.

Caregivers as Therapeutic Agents in Dementia Care

“…These multicomponent interventions included combinations of education, care management, counseling, skills training, and referral to community resources tailored to caregiver unmet needs. Five studies emphasized telephone delivery Kwok, Bel Wong, Chui, Young, & Ho, 2013;Martindale-Adams, Nichols, Burns, Graney, & Zuber, 2013;Tremont et al, 2014); two studies emphasized adoption of newer technologies, such as videophone (Czaja et al, 2013) or webbased platforms (Kajiyama et al, 2013). While the strength of effect of the outcomes in these studies were similar to those noted in Table 17.1 (e.g., burden, strain, psychological morbidity), most also included measures of positive aspects of caregiving (e.g., preparedness, competency, and mastery).…”

An empowerment program for family caregivers of people with dementia

“…A possible explanation of the inconsistent results in changing self‐efficacy might be because of the different self‐efficacy measure. We measured self‐efficacy by two domains—caregiving‐induced symptom management and use of community support services—whereas Tremont et al () measured self‐efficacy focused on the emotions of participants caring for their relatives. Additionally, our program included a problem‐solving method and the societal resources needed to care for PWD.…”

Sleep in caregivers

“…Concurrently, there is growing interest in using technology to address problems with access and affordability of caregiver intervention programs. A number of recent telephone-and Internet-delivered psychoeducational and self-help interventions have shown promise for improving mood and reducing burden in dementia caregivers [30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. Although these interventions have not targeted caregiver sleep per se, it would not be a far stretch to incorporate elements of CBT-I strategies or training in ABC problem-solving to help identify activators for care-receiver nighttime awakenings and to brainstorm caregiver response options.…”