Smith Tamara L, Toseland Ronald W
Institute of Gerontology, School of Social Welfare, RI 217, University at Albany, State University of New York, 135 Western Avenue, Albany, NY 12222, USA.
Gerontologist. 2006 Oct;46(5):620-9. doi: 10.1093/geront/46.5.620.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a telephone support group program on spouses and adult child caregivers of frail older adults.
The Telephone Support Group (TSG) model is a multicomponent group program offered in 12 weekly, 90-minute group sessions. It includes emotion-focused and problem-focused coping strategies, education, and support. We recruited for this study 36 spouses and 61 adult children and randomly assigned them to TSG or to usual services. We assessed the participants before and after the completion of TSG or usual services.
The results indicated that, for adult child caregivers, TSG was more effective than usual services in reducing burden, depression, social support, and pressing problems, and increasing knowledge and use of community services. We found no significant differences for spouse caregivers.
This is the first study to compare the effectiveness of TSG for adult child and spouse caregivers of frail older adults. TSG showed itself to be an effective means of delivering support to adult child caregivers of frail older adults but not to spouses. More research is needed about how to make TSG effective for spouse caregivers.
本研究旨在评估电话支持小组项目对体弱老年人的配偶及成年子女照料者的有效性。
电话支持小组（TSG）模式是一个多组分小组项目，通过12次每周90分钟的小组会议提供。它包括以情绪为中心和以问题为中心的应对策略、教育及支持。我们为该研究招募了36名配偶和61名成年子女，并将他们随机分配到TSG组或常规服务组。我们在TSG或常规服务结束前后对参与者进行了评估。
结果表明，对于成年子女照料者，TSG在减轻负担、抑郁、社会支持和紧迫问题方面比常规服务更有效，并且在增加社区服务知识和使用方面更有效。我们发现配偶照料者之间没有显著差异。
这是第一项比较TSG对体弱老年人的成年子女和配偶照料者有效性的研究。TSG被证明是为体弱老年人的成年子女照料者提供支持的有效手段，但对配偶无效。关于如何使TSG对配偶照料者有效还需要更多研究。
