Evaluation of a Transition Intervention for Family Caregivers of Persons with Alzheimer’s Disease and Multiple Chronic Conditions

With the number of Canadians with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) growing, supporting family care partners of persons with AD is critical. Family caregivers provide about 90 per cent of in-home care for persons with AD, and the care is often difficult due to co-morbidities in persons with AD. Family caregivers of older persons with AD and multiple chronic conditions experience significant, complex, distressing transitions such as changes to their environment, roles and relationships, physical and mental health, isolation, and taking on new tasks. A Transition Toolkit was developed for family caregivers of persons with AD living at home, to support caregivers through transitions and increase their self-efficacy, hope, and quality of life (QOL).

Through this pragmatic mixed methods randomized controlled trial we found that family caregivers receiving the Toolkit plus volunteer support will show greater improvement in hope, self-efficacy and quality of life, compared with those receiving the Toolkit alone or usual care. The results inform policy and practice as the Toolkit can be easily revised for local contexts and scalable in terms of posting on websites such as the AD Society.

Publication in BMC Geriatrics

Publication in Journal of Medical Internet Research

Publication in Journal of Medical Internet Research