A Psychoeducational Intervention to Reduce Distress in Hispanic Family Caregivers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of offering a psychoeducational intervention, in a group format, to Hispanic/Latino family caregivers of dementia victims. The final sample size was 70 primary caregivers who volunteered to participate in the study: 43 were in the intervention program and 27 were on a waiting list for 3 months. Pre/post comparisons were made between those participating in the specially designed culturally sensitive 8-week class (that taught several specific cognitive and behavioral skills for coping with the frustrations associated with caregiving) and those who remained on the waiting list for that same time period. Those in the class reported significantly fewer depressive symptoms, and showed a trend for increased control of feelings of anger and frustration, compared to those on the waiting list, who did not improve on any measure. Limitations of the study include lack of random Dolores Gallagher-Thompson

Exploring the Benefits to Caregivers of a Family-Oriented Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program

“…34 The findings are consistent with previous studies in non-respiratory conditions, which showed that providing psychoeducational support to family caregivers facilitates an adaptive coping to caregiving demands. 10,35 Nevertheless, there were no significant improvements in depression, anxiety, and stress, and improvements in CADI were found for both groups, with no significant differences. This might call into question the validity of DASS and CADI in the specific context of COPD caregiving, despite their good psychometric properties.…”

Is depression in Alzheimer's caregivers really due to activity restriction? A preliminary mediational test of the Activity Restriction Model

“…Rather, this literature suggests that behavioral interventions, such as those described by Lewinsohn (Lewinsohn, 1974) and Jacobson (Jacobson, Martell, & Dimidjian, 2001), may be particularly efficacious for reducing depressive symptoms. Indeed, caregiving interventions based on increasing caregivers' exposure to pleasant events have been shown to be efficacious (Coon, Thompson, Steffen, Sorocco, & Gallagher-Thompson, 2003;Gallagher-Thompson et al, 2000), although neither of these studies tested whether increased engagement in activities mediated the efficacy of the intervention for decreasing depressive symptoms. Future research should examine this mechanistic possibility.…”

Caregiving burden and psychiatric morbidity in spouses of persons with mild cognitive impairment

“…These interventions could be specifically designed to strengthen intrapersonal skills and resources in order to prevent the worsening of psychiatric symptoms as some of these caregivers progress to become dementia caregivers. For example, to the extent that caregiver burden contributes to psychiatric morbidity, interventions designed to promote affective self-management and adaptive coping skills training, implemented very early in the caregiving trajectory, hold promise for contributing to more positive mental health outcomes in these spousal caregivers (Areán et al, 1993;Hosaka and Sugiyama, 1999;Gallagher-Thompson et al, 2000;Hepburn et al, 2001;Alexopoulos, et al, 2003). Self-management interventions, with their focus on promoting self-efficacy (i.e.…”