Partners in Dementia Care: A Telephone Care Consultation Intervention Provided to Veterans in Partnership With Local Alzheimer's Association Chapters

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Background: Partners in Dementia Care (PDC) is a care coordination and support service intervention for veterans with dementia and their family caregivers, delivered through partnerships between VA medical centers and local Alzheimer's Association Chapters. PDC was designed to be a feasible and practical intervention to integrate health, community, and support services. PDC has a standardized protocol for care coordination and support services, including guidelines for care plan assessment, care plan development and implementation, ongoing monitoring, and reassessment. It also offers a structured training curriculum for providers and an operations manual for uniform implementation. Objectives: The primary objective was to test the impact of PDC on outcomes for veterans with dementia and family caregivers. Two specific research objectives and corresponding hypotheses were addressed: 1. To test the impact of PDC on three categories of outcomes: psychosocial well-being outcomes (patient and caregiver effects); health care service use (patient effects only); and health care cost (patient effects only). HI:PDC, compared to usual care, will improve psychosocial well-being for patients with dementia and their caregivers. H2:PDC, compared to usual care, will reduce health care service use for patients with dementia. H3:PDC is preferred to usual care based on cost-benefit analyses. H4:The PDC intervention will be more effective in improving psychosocial well-being and reducing health care service use for patients and caregivers dealing with more severe patient impairment (e.g., cognitive status, functional status, and level of problem behaviors). 2. To evaluate the impact of PDC on role and intra-psychic strains caused by dementia and its care (patient and caregiver effects). H5a:PDC, compared to usual care, will decrease patient role and intra-psychic strain. H5b:PDC, compared to usual care, will decrease caregiver role and intra-psychic strain. H6:The PDC intervention will be more effective in decreasing role and intra-psychic strains for patients and caregivers dealing with more severe patient impairment (e.g., cognitive status, functional status, and level of problem behaviors).

Detailed Description
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Background: Dementia affects the entire family by negatively impacting multiple domains including physical health, emotional health, social relationships, and legal and financial issues (Gurland, 1980; Kunik, Snow, Molinari, Menke, Souchek, Sullivan et al, 2003; Schulz, Visintainer, & Williamson, 1990; Wright, Clipp, & George, 1993). Particularly challenging is accessing the range of services needed to address the care needs of both the individual with dementia and the primary family caregiver. Common issues include: obtaining adequate diagnostic testing; understanding treatment options and medications; difficulties with memory and behavioral symptoms; and care- and illness-related strain (Mitnick, Leffler, & Hood, 2010). Additionally, many unmet care needs are the result of service fragmentation and inadequate communication among different medical providers, medical providers and consumers, and medical providers and community services (Reuben, Levin, Frank, 2009). Built upon two prior studies: the Cleveland Alzheimer's Managed Care Demonstration (Bass, Clark, Looman, McCarthy, & Eckert, 2003) and the Chronic Care Networks for Alzheimer's Disease (CCN/AD) (Maslow & Bass, 2003; Maslow & Selstad, 2001), PDC was a 5-year research investigation that tested the effectiveness of a telephone-based, innovative care-coordination intervention designed to address the unmet care needs of Veterans with dementia and their family caregivers across all dementia stages. PDC was implemented through formal partnerships between the VA medical centers and local Alzheimer's Association (AA) chapters. Essential features of PDC included: 1) formal partnerships between VA medical centers and Alzheimer's Association Chapters; 2) a multidimensional assessment and treatment approach, 3) ongoing monitoring and long-term relationships with families; and 4) a computerized information system to guide service delivery and fidelity monitoring. For a complete description of the PDC intervention protocol please see Judge, Bass, Snow, Wilson, Morgan, Looman, McCarthy, and Kunik (2010). Objectives: The primary objective of this investigation is to rigorously test the impact of PDC on a number of outcomes for Veterans with dementia, family caregivers, and healthcare providers. Within VA Medical Centers, the focus will be on improving dementia care in primary care clinics, including geriatrics. Two specific research objectives and corresponding hypotheses will be addressed: To test the impact of PDC on three categories of outcomes: psychosocial well-being outcomes (patient and caregiver effects); healthcare service use (patient effects only); and health care cost (patient effects only). Hypothesis 1: PDC, compared with usual care, will improve psychosocial well-being, including depression, health status, adequacy of care, and quality of care for patients with dementia and their caregivers. Hypothesis 2: PDC, compared with usual care, will reduce healthcare service use for patients with dementia, including hospital admissions, emergency department visits, nursing home admissions, and physician visits. Hypothesis 3: PDC is preferred to usual care, based on cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses. Hypothesis 4: The PDC intervention will be more effective than usual care in improving psychosocial well-being and reducing health care service use for patients and caregivers dealing with more severe patient impairment (e.g., cognitive status, functional status, and level of problem behaviors). To evaluate the impact of PDC on role and intra-psychic strains caused by dementia and its care (patient and caregiver effects). Hypothesis 5a: PDC, compared with usual care, will decrease patient role and intra-psychic strain, including embarrassment about the illness, emotional strain, relationship strain, and social isolation. Hypothesis 5b: PDC, compared with usual care, will decrease caregiver role and intra-psychic strain, including role captivity, work care-related strain, relationship strain, emotional and physical health deterioration, and caregiving efficacy. Hypothesis 6: The PDC intervention will be more effective than usual care in decreasing role and intra-psychic strains for patients and caregivers dealing with more severe patient impairment (e.g., cognitive status, functional status, and level of problem behaviors). Methods: The proposed study was a 55-month, controlled trial of PDC. The project was conducted at two intervention sites and three comparison sites matched on organizational, provider, and patient characteristics. Partners in Dementia Care was compared to usual care. Both groups received educational materials about dementia at the start. PDC Intervention The Chronic Care Model (Bodenheimer, Wagner, & Grumbach, 2002; Bodenheimer, Wagner, & Grumbach, 2002) was used as an overarching framework to implement PDC and included the following components: 1) Formal linkages between medical centers (the VA) and community agencies (the Alzheimer's Association); 2) Organizational support from key leaders and broad-based training about PDC; 3) Delivery system redesign and decision support systems; 4) Self-management of dementia as outlined by the PDC intervention protocol; 5) The development of the PDC Care Coordination Information System (CCIS) as the clinical information system. PDC had four primary ways of assisting families: 1) providing disease-related education and information; 2) offering emotional support and coaching; 3) linking families to medical and non-medical services and resources; and 4) mobilizing and organizing the informal care network. Two key staff members implemented the intervention: a VA Dementia Care Coordinator (VA DCC) in VA medical centers and an Alzheimer's Association Care Consultant (AA CC) in Alzheimer's Association Chapters. VA DCCs primarily focused on veterans' medical and non-medical needs and assisted families with effectively using VA resources; AA CCs primarily focused on needs of informal caregivers such as care-related strain and accessing non-VA resources. The intervention protocol consisted of: 1) Assessment of Care Needs across medical and non-medical care issues that addressed 23 domains for Veterans and 14 domains for caregivers; 2) Development of Care Goals that matched the priorities of Veterans and caregivers; 3) Development of Action Steps which were concrete behavioral tasks intended to help families move toward goal achievement (e.g., individual responsible for completing each task, expected completion date); 4) On-going Monitoring of Action Steps on a regular basis to ensure timely completion of tasks, address potential barriers, modify or add action steps, and identify new goals. Analytic Plan With one exception, measures of objective characteristics, including community and support-service use, service knowledge, number of informal helpers, and Veterans' impairments, were based on information reported by caregivers. The one exception was a measure of impairment based on scores from a standardized mental status test that was administered to Veterans over the telephone (i.e., the Blessed Orientation-Memory-Concentration Test; Katzman et al., 1983). Additionally, a small number of Veterans (approximately 5%) with mild dementia did not have a caregiver; objective characteristics for these individuals were self-reported by the Veteran. Information used to construct measures of subjective characteristics, such as feelings about or perceptions of the quality of care and care-related strain, came directly from the individual whose feelings or perceptions were being represented.

Official Title
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Partners in Dementia Care

Conditions
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Dementia, Alzheimer Disease

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Partners in Dementia Care


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Dementia Diagnosis veteran reside outside of a long-term care facility live within local Alzheimer Association chapter service of Houston, Oklahoma City, Boston, or Providence Exclusion Criteria: Live in long-term care

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Treatment
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Partners in Dementia Care<br>PDC is telephone-based care consultation intervention jointly delivered by care consultants in the VA and local Alzheimer's Association. The steps in care consultation included 1) Assessment of medical and non-medical care needs; 2) Development of a care plan that addresses needs of patients and caregivers; 3) on-going monitoring of the status, progress, and barriers encountered; and 4) Reassessment of care needs for patients and caregivers. PDC assisted families by: 1) providing disease-related education and information, 2) offering emotional support and coaching, 3) linking families to medical and non-medical services and resources, and 4) mobilizing and organizing the informal care network. | Behavioral: Partners in Dementia Care<br>* Partners in Dementia Care is facilitated by the VA Dementia care coordinator (VA DCC) that is with the study. The role of the VA DCC includes conducting initial assessments with the subject and caregiver that leads to: Arranging for further assessment or attention from VA health care system/providers about dementia related concerns or about co-morbid health issues; for example: VA driving evaluation, congestive heart failure medication adherence; Ensuring education is provided about particular health, safety issues; Following up with patient/caregiver on health promoting activities he/she is committed to do; and Sharing care plan actions/outcomes with other VA providers as agreed upon by patient.<br>|
| No Intervention: Usual Care<br>Patients and caregivers at the three control VA settings were given a packet of educational materials on dementia and usual-care community resources. | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Caregiver Outcomes | The following outcomes were measured in Caregivers via scales administered to each caregiver: Unmet need (range=0 to 39, higher meaning more unmet needs); Role captivity (range=0-9, higher indicating greater role captivity); Physical health strain (range=0-9, higher indicating greater health strain); Relationship strain (range=0-18, higher indicating greater relationship strain); Depression (range=0-22, higher indicating greater depression); Caregiver support service use (the number of support services utilized, 0-2); Number of informal helpers (range=0-50, higher indicating more informal helpers) | Baseline and at six months | 
| Veteran Outcomes | The following outcomes were measured for veterans via scales administered to each veteran: Unmet need (range=0 to 24, higher meaning more unmet needs); Embarrassment about memory problems (range=0-3, higher indicating greater embarrassment); Isolation (range=0-4, higher indicating greater isolation); Relationship strain (range=0-4, higher indicating greater relationship strain); Depression (range=0-11, higher indicating greater depression). | Baseline - six months | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Delivery of Health Care, Integrated, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Dementia, Patient Care Management