Family caregivers are an integral part of the U.S. health care system, as 38% of all care for persons with Alzheimers disease is done by unpaid caregivers. Persons with dementia also receive approximately 2.6 times the amount of informal care that a cognitively intact older adult doesroughly 171 hours per month. So, there is an urgent need for products and programs that enable family caregivers to provide better care and a higher quality of life to persons living with dementia. To this end, in the proposed Phase 1 project, we will develop and test a new software application for unpaid family caregivers of persons with dementia residing at home. This application, which will be called Decide, Discover, Do!, will consist of two main components. The first will be a repository of high-quality, evidence-based activities for persons with dementia; the second will be an interactive, video-based series of education courses tailored specifically to the needs of family caregivers. Regarding the activity component, on any given day that the app is used, the caregiver and care-recipient will first decide together upon that days theme, by looking through the many choices included in the app (e.g., French food, gardening, dogs, etc.). Then, having made that empowering decision, the dyad will collaboratively discover new information about the topic. They will do this by taking part in an evidence- based activity that allows PWD to learn new things in fun and engaging ways. For example, they might read a brief story about different types of French Cuisine. Later that day, day, the dyad will do a hands- on, experiential activity related to the days theme. For instance, they might follow a simple video included in the app to create a special French dessert. By providing unpaid caregivers with tools to engage their loved ones for long periods of time and in a variety of ways, providing care should become easier and the persons quality of life should improve. The Specific Aims of this Phase 1 project are to (1) create an Alpha version of the D3 app, which will provide caregivers with the guidance, education, and activities, needed to provide better care to their loved one and facilitate meaningful activities, (2) investigate satisfaction and ease of use of the D3 app by obtaining feedback directly from FCs and their loved ones; and (3) investigate the distal (longer-term) effects of D3 on FCs, in terms of burden and stigma.
Public Health Relevance Statement: Project Narrative Family caregivers are an integral part of the U.S. health care system, as 38% of all care for persons with Alzheimers disease is done by unpaid caregivers. So, there is an urgent need for products and programs that enable family caregivers to provide better care and a higher quality of life to persons living with dementia. Through the development and evaluation of an app that enables persons with dementia to engage in evidence-based activities throughout the day with their unpaid caregiver, and that provides interactive training tailored to family caregivers, the proposed project will help meet this need.
Project Terms: Alzheimer's Disease; base; bean; Behavior; Canis familiaris; care recipients; Caregivers; caregiving; Caring; Categories; Client; Cognitive; cognitive skill; community intervention; Computer software; Dementia; Development; Distal; Education; Elderly; empowered; Evaluation; evidence base; experience; Family Caregiver; Family member; Feedback; Financial compensation; Food; Friends; Health; Healthcare Systems; Home environment; Hour; improved; informal care; Instruction; Learning; Long-Term Effects; loved ones; meetings; Methods; Mexican; Motor Skills; news; novel; Persons; Phase; phase 2 study; pleasure; Prayers; procedural memory; programs; Quality of life; Reading; regional difference; repository; Research; Rest; satisfaction; Series; skills; social stigma; sound; Structure; success; Taste Perception; Testing; Time; tool; Training; Training Activity; Weather; Work
