Evaluation of the Reitman Centre CARERS program for supporting dementia family caregivers: a pre–post intervention study

Abstract

Objectives: While family caregivers (CGs) of persons with dementia are cost-effective for the health system, this form of caregiving leads to disproportionate vulnerability to physical, mental, and social adverse health consequences among CGs. The study goal was to determine the effect of the Reitman Centre CARERS program on key outcomes in family CGs of people with dementia. The Reitman Centre CARERS program is an innovative, group psychotherapeutic skills training intervention based on integrated problem-solving techniques (PST), simulation learning, and group psychotherapy designed to address each CGs’ unique situation. Design: A quasi-experimental, non-randomized, pre–post evaluation, multiple groups, multisite trial. Setting: Multisite group intervention provided in community agencies and hospital-based locations. Participants: Spousal or adult child family CGs (n = 264) living in the community and providing care to community-dwelling family members with dementia. Measurement: CGs were assessed for depression (CES-D); stress (PSS); burden (12-item SZBI); role overload, mastery, caregiving competence, and role captivity (Perlin scales), coping (CISS – Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations), CG reactions to CR’s memory and behavioral symptoms (RMBPC). Care recipients (CRs) were assessed on basic and complex activities of daily living (Katz and Lawton). Paired t-tests and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used for statistical analysis of both the whole group and a more compromised subgroup of CGs. Results: For the group as a whole, CGs showed significant positive change on post-intervention outcome measures of stress, depression, burden, competence, role captivity, overload, mastery, coping, and reaction to memory issues. The intervention showed especially robust effect sizes (ES) in more compromised CGs. These positive outcomes emerged despite a significant measured deterioration in CRs’ function. Conclusion: The CARERS program may be an effective multicomponent intervention to improve the well-being, functioning, and coping skills of dementia CGs.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Community-Based Dementia Caregiver Intervention on Caregiving Burden, Depression, and Attitude Toward Dementia: A Quasi‐experimental Study

“…Additionally, this design was considered a valid method to conduct research on caregiver program efficacy. 24 In this study, we included both an intervention and a control group, as described below.…”

Delivering a holistic hospital‐to‐home framework to support family caregivers of persons with dementia: Protocol for a feasibility study

“…One example of our suite of training programmes is the CARERS programme, originally developed for caregivers of PwD in Canada. CARERS was shown to produce sustained improvement in caregivers' perceived stress, mastery, depressive symptoms, caregiving competence and coping, key qualities needed to support the caregivers' capacity to continue in their caregiving role for the foreseeable future (Sadavoy et al, 2021). When this approach was piloted locally, the caregivers who attended the training reported that they were able to apply its lessons to their day‐to‐day management of the PwD.…”

Evaluating Caregiver Risk: The Dementia Caregiver Interview Guide

“…To this end, we developed the Dementia Caregiver Interview Guide (DCIG) at The Cyril & Dorothy, Joel & Jill Reitman Centre for Alzheimer Support and Training ("Reitman Centre") at Sinai Health, a University of Toronto Academic Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada. As part of the Geriatric Psychiatry Program at the hospital, the Reitman Centre has developed an array of multidimensional approaches to provide evidence-based skills training and therapeutic support for family caregivers who are caring for individuals with dementia [22][23][24][25].…”