Clinical trial NCT01355029: Evaluation of the Stroke Caregiver Education and Support Program
Official title: A Pilot Study of the Evaluation of the Family Informal Caregiver Stroke Self Management (FICSS) Research Project: Impact on Caregiver Psychosocial, Emotional and Health Needs
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Stroke
Keywords: Stroke caregivers
Family Caregivers
Stroke
Lead sponsor: March of Dimes, Canada
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation
First posted: 2011-05-17
Enrollment: 43
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: NA
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Brief summary: The study will be evaluating to a 4 week education and support program for stroke caregivers. The 4 week program will provide education, information, and strategies for dealing with areas that caregivers may find challenging in their caregiving role. The study will evaluate the effectiveness of the program to decrease the caregiver's stress, strain and burden, increase the caregiver's knowledge of strategies and community services and increase their role satisfaction as a stroke caregiver and quality of life two weeks after the program and 6 months after the program.

Detailed description: The modules in the program are: 1) Program Introduction, sharing Caregiving Stories and an introduction to Self Management; 2) Community Connections; Session 3 and 4 are chosen by the participants during session 1 from 6 possible options: Communication in your relationship; Cognition, Memory and Personhood; Dealing with your Emotions; Managing your Stress; Changing roles in your relationships and How to be Caregiver Smart? The programs provides education, information and strategies to deal with the areas that caregivers struggle with as caregivers in order to help them feel better able to prepared to manage as caregivers. Also, the investigators also hope to develop some beginning understanding of when is the best time to provide the program to stroke caregivers to be most helpful to them in their caregiving role.

Eligibility criteria: Informal unpaid family stroke caregivers

Inclusion Criteria:

Informal unpaid family stroke caregivers

* 18 years of age or older;
* Have provided care to stroke survivor within the home for at least 2 months;
* Have the ability to communicate in English;
* Live within Central South Ontario Stroke Region or the West GTA Stroke Region.

Exclusion Criteria:

Caregivers who:

* Paid to provide care;
* Are friends who provide care to stroke survivor;
* Are providing palliative care to stroke survivor within the home.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in Baseline Bakas Caregiving Outcome Scale at 2 Weeks and 6 Months post Intervention
timeFrame: Baseline, 2 weeks and 6 months Post Intervention
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Change in Baseline Oberst Caregiving Burden Scale at 2 Weeks and 6 Months Post Intervention
timeFrame: Baseline, 2 weeks and 6 months post intervention
measure: Open Ended Focus Group Interview to assess impact of program weeks and 6 months post intervention
timeFrame: 2 weeks and 6 months post Intervention
measure: Caregiver Baseline/Stroke Survivor Baseline Questionnaire
timeFrame: Baseline
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Hamilton
country: Canada
facility: Hamilton Health Sciences
state: Ontario
Study officials:
affiliation: March of Dimes, Canada
name: Gail Mores, B.Sc. Rec.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: