Building Better Caregivers: Development and Evaluation

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The program consists of a 6-week small-group workshop for caregivers of people with memory problems. The goal of the study is to evaluate in a one year longitudinal study, program effectiveness in reducing caregiver stress, depression, fatigue, burden, days lost from work and improving sleep, healthful behaviors and self-efficacy

Detailed Description
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The Building Better Caregivers workshop meets for 2.5 hours per week for 6 weeks in small groups of 10-16. It is peer-led (leaders already trained in the Stanford model must take a 2-day cross-training before leading a BBC workshop). Participants will learn self-management skills such as decision making, goal setting, action planning, stress management, dealing with difficult behaviors, working with the health care system, planning for the future,building an exercise program, communication skills, healthy eating, etc. All participants will complete follow up questionnaires and 6 and 12 months. They will have the option of completing the questionnaire by mail or telephone interview. Once a particular workshop site is identified by a partner organization, Stanford will provide packets of consents and questionnaires to the site coordinator(non-Stanford). The site coordinator will either schedule an extra hour for the first meeting of the 6-week series, or an orientation meeting held a week or so before the workshop begins. During this time, the coordinator will announce to the prospective subjects that this study is being conducted and that they are invited to participate, and will pass out a consent, questionnaire and consent copy to each prospective participant. The consent and questionnaire are self-administered. This study is longitudinal, so no randomization will take place. Stanford holds no meetings, but receives the data. The site coordinators hold the orientation meetings. The workshops are scheduled by the various organizations, and they determine when and how the orientation time is scheduled. It will vary from site to site.

Official Title
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Building Better Caregivers: Development and Evaluation

Conditions
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Providing Care for People With Memory Problems

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Building Better Caregivers Small-group Workshop


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Family or friend caregiver of someone with cognitive impairment for at least 10 hours per week 18 years of age or older Able to attend a workshop 2.5 hours per week for 6 weeks Speaks English Exclusion Criteria: Professional caregiver Under 18 years of age Non-English speaking

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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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Prevention
Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Intervention<br>Building Better Caregivers Small-group Workshop | Behavioral: Building Better Caregivers Small-group Workshop<br> <br> |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Fatigue | visual numeric 0-10 scale | baseline-1 year | 
| Pain | visual numeric 0-10 scale | baseline-1 year | 
| stress | visual numeric 0-10 scale | baseline-1 year | 
| problems sleeping | visual numeric 0-10 scale | baseline-1 year | 
| depression (PHQ-8) | 8 item 0-3 scale | baseline-1 year | 
| self-efficacy for caregiving | 9-item 1-10 scale | baseline-1 year | 
| caregiver stress | 13-item 3 point scale | baseline-1 year | 
| caregiver burden | 12-item 5 point scale | baseline-1 year | 
| health care utilization (doctor, emergency department, hospital) | number of times/days in past 6 month visited doctor, emergency department, hospital | baseline-1 year | 
| exercise | number of minutes of exercise in past week | baseline- 1 year | 
| general health | single item scale of overall health | baseline-1 year | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| care partner health utilization | number of MD ER hospital visits for person being cared for in past 6 months | baseline- 1 year | 
| carepartners general health | single item scale of overall health of person being cared for | baseline-1 year | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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caregiving, chronic illness, patient education, self management