Promoting Healthy Caregiving: Digitalized Education and Support for Family Caregivers
Abstract
Rationale and Objective for the Proposed Work: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is among the most devastating and disabling medical conditions affecting wounded members of the military. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System is the single largest SCI healthcare provider in the nation. There are approximately 44,000 SCI Veterans receiving healthcare at VA facilities. Caregivers play a vital role in the rehabilitation and community reintegration of Veterans with SCI, which are potentially threatened by the burden perceived by their Caregivers. There is a paucity of easily accessible resources that provide Caregivers of Veteran living with SCI with tools to care for themselves as they provide care to their loved ones. VANJHCS SCI Center’s health care team provides education and support to Caregivers through this Center’s “Art of Health Caregiving Program” which addresses topics such as self-care strategies for SCI Caregivers, teaching SCI Veterans the value of their Caregivers in their lives, and information on services available to support Caregivers and their loves ones. This program is well-received by the SCI Veterans and their Caregivers but relies on in-person and clinician-driven interactions. The proposed project will build on this Center’s experience delivering a successful facility-based caregiver education program, qualitative research expertise, and recent innovations in online education platform technology to create an easily accessible, highly scalable, dynamic web-based Art of Healthy Caregiving program for family Caregivers of Veterans living with SCI. Types of individuals the project will help and how it will help them: All key players involved in delivering healthcare to Veterans with SCI: SCI Veterans, SCI Caregivers, and SCI Clinicians will benefit from this project. The Clinicians will gain a better understanding of what Caregivers feel they need to help them care for themselves as they partner with the Healthcare team to care for the Veterans with SCI. The online educational program will provide Caregivers with timely, flexible, and affordable access to education on topics of interest to them. The results of the project will also help to reduce the burden experienced by SCI Caregivers. The Veterans will benefit because their Caregivers would be able to continue to care for them in their homes. At the end of the study, there will be a large-scale, web-based SCI Caregiver support program that can be used by Caregivers of civilians and Veterans living with SCI. Potential applications, benefits, and risks: Developing an accessible, web-based program for SCI Caregivers is important for several reasons: increasing SCI Caregiver’s access to self-care materials can assist in decreasing the caregiving burdens and health issues experienced by SCI Caregivers; educating SCI Veterans on caregiving from their Caregiver’s perspectives will allow SCI Veterans to better understand the burden experienced by their family Caregiver; healthcare workers caring for people living with SCI can direct their patients and their Caregivers to use this web-based program as a supplement to their facility-based education for SCI Caregivers. A potential risk is that some of the SCI Caregivers may be resistant to utilizing a web-based program which would not solve their current problem with not having readily accessible materials on self-care, resources, and support to them. Projected timeline for achieving the desired outcome: The project should take 3 years to develop content and curriculum, create videos based on the curriculum developed, and finally evaluate the effectiveness of the program by the key Stakeholders. Likely contributions of the proposed research project to advancing the field of SCI research: The findings will advance SCI research by offering solutions to problems SCI Caregivers face when providing care to their loved ones. This project will provide information on learning needs and preferences t
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 10, 2021
- Source ID
- W81XWH2010383
Entities
People
- Carol Gibson-gill
Organizations
- United States Army
- Veterans Biomedical Research Institute