Feasibility of training family caregivers of people living with dementia online to deliver life review depression intervention at home.

OBJECTIVES

To alleviate the high prevalence of depressive symptoms and dementia in older Americans (≥65 years), we developed a depression intervention, , and taught family caregivers life review skills online compared to a synchronous group virtual training, and examined the feasibility and delivery impact ( = 20 dyads).

METHOD

In a cross-sectional, mixed-methods dyadic design, we recruited family caregiver-care recipient dyads nationwide, collected the pre- and post-intervention measures on care recipients' depression (primary outcome), life satisfaction, caregivers' burden, caregiving rewards, and dyads' relationship quality (secondary outcomes), and compared them using t-tests. We took fidelity scores to measure caregivers' feasibility of delivering life reviews adhering to the protocol.

RESULTS

Care recipients' depressive symptoms declined significantly following the C-PLR intervention ( = 0.034) and caregivers' rewards increased from the pre- to post-period ( = 0.019). Caregivers' qualitative interviews supported the quantitative results that online-trained caregivers' ability to deliver the intervention with high adherence to protocol (15.9 ± 0.27 out of 16) without increasing caregiver burden.

CONCLUSION

This pilot study suggested that the C-PLR could make a positive impact on both caregivers' and care recipients' mental health. This innovative, cost-effective, and easily implemented activity can be used by any dyad regardless of whether they have any health-related deficits.