Improving Family Quality of Life through Training to Reduce Care-Resistant Behaviors by People with Alzheimer Dementia and Traumatic Brain Injury
Abstract
The primary objective of the proposed research program is to reduce the burden experienced by family members who provide care to people with dementia due to Alzheimer s disease (AD). A common cause of caregiver burden is abnormal behavior, including agitation/aggression, disinhibition, and irritability/lability. These adverse behaviors are often triggered by resistance to the caregiver s request to participate in a care-related activity, such as bathe, take medicines, abstain from alcohol, go to an appointment, etc. Similar problems also occur in survivors of traumatic brain injury (TBI). The behavior issues are common triggers of distress to family members; they increase costs of care for the affected person, lead to health issues in the caregivers, and undermine quality of life (QOL). There is preliminary evidence that teaching professional caregivers strategies to alter the way they interact with people suffering from BPSD can reduce those symptoms. We propose to develop and implement a 12-week, distance-accessible (i.e., online) training and coaching program for family caregivers of people with BPSD and similar symptoms after TBI. The program will provide educational materials and six real-time individualized coaching sessions delivered through the internet. During the 3 years of the research program, we will enroll 50 families of people with BPSD and 25 families of people with TBI and behavioral symptoms triggered by caregiver requests to participate in a care-related activity. Half of the families will receive the education materials and coaching in the first 6 weeks of the study, the other half will receive the coaching sessions after 6 weeks. We will collect information on the affected person s memory and thinking abilities, behaviors, daily function, and QOL. We will collect information on the caregiver s personality characteristics, burden of associated with caregiving, QOL, and his/her sense of the family s function and QOL. We hypothesize that the coaching will reduce the burden of caregiving. We also hypothesize that severity of the patient s cognitive losses and certain caregiver personality characteristics will affect the effectiveness of the education and coaching. Because behavioral symptoms increase caregiver strain and we think the behavioral symptoms can improve with this type of training, we will explore the effect of the treatment on patient, caregiver, and family QOL and on use of healthcare services like medications, emergency room visits, and hospitalizations in both AD and TBI groups. Because it is important to know whether the benefits of coaching are maintained, we will re-assess for the effects at 6, 12, 18 weeks after the coaching is complete.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 31, 2017
- Source ID
- W81XWH1610527
Entities
People
- David Geldmacher
Organizations
- United States Army
- University of Alabama at Birmingham