Stress Management Program for Rural Family Caregivers

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Web-based interventions hold much promise in delivering social-behavioral interventions to individuals who otherwise have difficulty accessing additional services due to challenges such as geographic isolation, functional limitations, and transportation problems. The present study seeks to develop and prospectively evaluate a web-based, interactive, computer-tailored program, which provides extensive personalized and normative feedback, designed to reduce distress and improve caregiving skills in rural family caregivers of persons with Alzheimer's disease or related dementias. To this end, this research aims to provide rural communities with a feasible, economical, consumer-driven, skills-based approach to teaching effective distress management and caregiving skills to caregivers. The project will be conducted in three phases. The first phase will establish content and construct validity through the use of expert consultation and focus groups. Focus groups will consist of family caregivers who live in rural Nevada. Based on caregiver recommendations, the empirical literature, and our experience after providing hundreds of hours of service and live workshops for family caregivers, during the second phase, a web-based intervention will be generated. Participants will be instructed via the web how to understand and manage common challenging behaviors (e.g., screaming, wandering, aggression); how to recognize physical, emotional, and behavioral signs of stress or burnout in themselves when situation demands exceed caregivers' ability to effectively cope; how to employ evidence-based coping techniques designed to improve caregiver health and wellbeing; how to access social support; how to cope with caregiver guilt, anger, and frustration. The final product (Phase II) will consist of a website that provides training using evidence-based interventions, online subscriber payment system, automatic e-mail prompts (to facilitate compliance), and several social support media (chat rooms and email digest).