Clinical trial NCT03667924: Utilizing Senior Companions to Enhance Dementia Care
Official title: Utilizing Senior Companions to Enhance Dementia Care Services and Supports
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Alzheimer Disease
Dementia
Keywords: Caregiving
Community-based care
Long-term services and supports
Volunteer
Lead sponsor: University of Minnesota
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Johns Hopkins University
name: Brown University
name: National Institute on Aging (NIA)
name: University of Texas
First posted: 2018-09-12
Enrollment: 44
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 21
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NA
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Intervention model description: Enrollment: Number of participants: 44 (33 senior volunteers; 7 clients (PWML); 4 caregivers)
Primary purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Brief summary: The inability of healthcare systems to effectively manage Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) often results in families remaining unaware of important community-based, long-term services and supports (LTSS) that could help to mitigate the negative effects of cognitive impairment. This project will feature a collaboration between Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota to evaluate a novel adaption of the volunteer Senior Companion Program (SCP) to: a) assist families better manage ADRD at home; b) identify and facilitate the use of LTSS; and c) improve engagement with primary care providers throughout the state of Minnesota. If successful, the PorchLight Project will offer a potentially efficient, wide-ranging service model for states and communities to implement for persons with ADRD and their caregiving families.

Detailed description: This project will evaluate a novel adaption of the Senior Companion Program (SCP) administered by Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota to assist families better manage their relatives' Alzheimer's disease or related dementias (ADRDs); identify and facilitate use of community-based long-term services and supports (LTSS); and improve engagement with healthcare providers. This intervention, called the PorchLight Project has the following aims:

Specific Aim 1. Implement PorchLight Project for 25 persons with ADRD or memory concerns (collectively, persons with memory loss \[PWML\]) and/or their caregivers in one urban and rural region of Minnesota. A convergent parallel mixed methods design \[(QUAN+QUAL)--\>QUAL\] will be utilized to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and utility of PorchLight Project for 25 families and their SC-Ds (n = 20) over a 3-month period (i.e., Stage I of the NIH Stage Model).

Specific Aim 2. Refine PorchLight Project delivery and implementation for efficacy evaluation. Activities to support this aim will include assessment of R61 milestones and incorporation of R61 findings to refine the PorchLight Project prior to efficacy evaluation. Through stakeholder engagement with the Dementia Healthcare Research Advisory Group (DHR) as well as analysis of the various quantitative and qualitative data elements collected during this Phase, we will finalize and refine effective training approaches for PorchLight Project Senior Companions (SCs), identify and confirm stakeholder-centric measures, and enhance the overall implementation of the PorchLight Project to inform a subsequent R33 Phase.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion criterion for the Senior Companion: 1) be a current volunteer through LSS-MN 2) be willing to complete the CARES® modules and 4-part training session provided by UMN research staff and 3) be 21 years of age or older.

Inclusion criteria for the PWML will be based on one of the following scenarios: 1) the person or their caregiver are concerned about the person's memory loss, 2) the person has a physician diagnosis of ADRD, 3) the caregiver (or PWML) scores 2 or greater on the AD8. The PWML must be 55 years of age or older.

Inclusion criteria for the caregiver is that the individual is 1) 21 years of age or older, 2) self-identifies as someone who provides help to the PWML because of their cognitive impairments, and 3) the care recipient is eligible for the study as per the above criteria.

Exclusion Criteria:

A PWML or caregiver will be ineligible if they have a diagnosis of a serious psychiatric illness, their symptoms have worsened in the last 6 months, and they don't receive steady, ongoing treatment for those symptoms.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Utilization of LTSS by PWML and Caregivers
timeFrame: Baseline, 1-month, 3-month
measure: Quality of Primary Care Interactions
timeFrame: Baseline, 1-month, 3-month
measure: Caregiver Distress: Burden
timeFrame: Baseline, 1-month, 3-month
measure: Caregiver Distress: Depressive Symptoms
timeFrame: Baseline, 1-month, 3-month
measure: PWML Well-being
timeFrame: Baseline, 1-month, 3-month
measure: PWML Depression
timeFrame: Baseline, 1-month, 3-month
measure: PWML Quality of Life
timeFrame: Baseline, 1-month, 3-month
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Caregiver Self-efficacy
timeFrame: Baseline, 1-month, 3-month
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Minneapolis
country: United States
facility: School of Public Health
state: Minnesota
Study officials:
References:
citation: Rosebush CE, Stabler H, Nkimbeng M, Louwagie K, Fields NL, Jutkowitz E, Shippee TP, Gaugler JE. The Porchlight Project: A Pilot Study to Adapt the Senior Companion Program to Enhance Memory Care Services and Supports. Gerontol Geriatr Med. 2021 May 14;7:23337214211017651. doi: 10.1177/23337214211017651. eCollection 2021 Jan-Dec.