Caregivers Like Me: An Education Intervention for Family Caregivers of Latino Elders at End-of-Life

Abstract

Introduction: End-of-life (EOL) care delivery to Latinos is a well-documented challenge. The majority of caregivers for Latino patients are family relatives, but because Latino caregivers may spend more hours in the caregiving role than other ethnic groups and are less likely to use additional available health care, caregivers can experience an increased burden. This can result in Latino elders being more vulnerable to receiving aggressive care. "Caregivers Like Me" was created as a source for nonprofessional caregivers to improve their knowledge about Latino caregiving of elders at end-of-life (EOL). This resource aims to educate about caregiver stress and to improve attitudes towards the utilization of EOL services. Methods: "Caregivers Like Me" is a bilingual education intervention that includes a video soap opera, or telenovela. The video is followed by discussion of hospice, palliative care, and caregiver stress definitions and ends with an explanation of services available for caregivers (i.e., social services, support groups, adult day care, chore workers, home care with or without palliative care, and respite care under hospice). Results: "Caregivers Like Me" has been demonstrated to improve Latino family caregivers' openness to receiving professional help while caring for their loved ones. Participants in a multisite cross-sectional pilot study among nonprofessional Latino caregivers (N = 145) reported active learning from the intervention and high satisfaction with the overall educational experience. Discussion: This tool provides an education format that is culturally and literacy-sensitive to Latino caregivers and effective in changing their attitude toward EOL care. It may be used by professional caregivers to educate Latino caregivers about EOL care.

What Did Latino Family Caregivers Expect and Learn From Education Intervention “Caregivers Like Me”?

“…Connecting self-care with the ability to remain calm and loving as a caregiver might help this information resonate more strongly with this population of caregivers. Additionally, making connections between the need for self-care and patient outcomes, such as ties between greater caregiver burden and earlier nursing home placement, 14,15 will also assist in meeting caregivers' desire to learn about "how to help the sick" as indicated by the pretest open-ended responses.…”

“… a The educational tool is available in YouTube: https://youtu.be/ck6Bs1T2Zck and published in MedEdPORTAL. 15 …”

“…Instruments. Development of the education tool, 15 telenovela, and pre-posttest questionnaire is detailed elsewhere. 13 In short, the education tool was a PowerPoint oral presentation followed by a video presentation and ending with a structured discussion.…”

“…Participants statements about expected outcomes of this training included learning how to manage The educational tool is available in YouTube: https://youtu.be/ck6Bs1T2Zck and published in MedEdPORTAL. 15 various health and emotional situations, such as "how to manage the situation with my own elderly parents." Several also talked about recognizing how to manage behaviors, for example, "how to manage a patient that resists help.…”

End-of-Life Care: A Multimodal and Comprehensive Curriculum for Graduating Medical Students Utilizing Experiential Learning Opportunities

“… 10 , 12 – 15 Lastly, other curricula are specific to singular clinical situations or patient populations making them hard to generalize to other clinical environments. 12 , 16 , 17 …”