PHOTOZIG INC — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: NIA

Description

Project SummaryOne inolder Americans has Alzheimerandapos s DiseaseADor related dementiaageplacing a substantial burden of caregiving on family caregiversmillionthe hidden patients at high risk for stressand depressive symptomsrelated to the difficulties of dementia caregivingA caregiver groupgreatly impacted by dementiais Hispanicthe largest minorityof US populationlargely neglected by the healthcare system with many health disparities and barriershigher incidence of Alzheimer se gversusfor Caucasians ageyears and overgreater depressive symptoms in Hispanicsthan in other groupslimited medical insurancelanguage proficiency issueslack of knowledge about dementiagreater need for help to deal with difficulties related to dementiaetcAs efficientlow costculturally tailoredand accessible interventions are needed to cope with dementia caregivingwe propose a new interventioncalledSelf Compassion Coping for dementia caregiversSCCto be implemented in the Caring Compassion AppCCAspecifically designed for Hispanic caregivers on how to cope with dementia caregivingreduce burden of caredecrease stressand alleviate depressive symptomsThere many predictors of stress related to caregivingincluding the sense of competenceguiltavailable resourcesand skills on how to deal with caregiving challengesAlthough some studies have shown that selfcompassion and other interventions can improve caregiver well beingthere is a lack of evidence based products that can be easily deployed in a cost effective manner to support Hispanic dementia caregiversCCA will feature self compassion practices to ease caregiving stressin addition to techniquesskillsand practical tips on caregiving coping in a self containedeasy to uselow costand convenient mobile appResearch on Mobile App based self compassion interventions for caregiving is an unexplored fieldCCA is one of the firstif not the first one for dementia caregiversThe novel CCA incorporatesaSelf Compassionbpsychoeducation and effective skill based caregiving coping training to reduce stress depressive symptomscimplementation of the curriculum into a culturally sensitive Mobile App for Hispanicsandcconvenient use of a Mobile App to engage users to follow the interventionRelated clinical advantages areencourage caregiver participationfacilitate interventionand enable better assimilation of skillswhich should enhance caregiversskills to deal with demanding tasks of caregivingreduce burden of careimprove quality of lifedecrease stressand help to alleviate depressive symptomsIn partnership with the Alzheimer s Associationexpert Advisory Board and caregiverswe will develop the SCC curriculum in Phase IFocus groups involving caregivers will inform the project and explore caregiver attitudes towards self compassionmobile app usageand proposed curriculumIn additiona prototype will be developed and tested with dementia caregivers to establish the feasibility of the approach in Phase I Public Health Relevance Depression and stress affect a large population ofmillion family caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer s Disease and related dementia in USimpacting the Hispanic American community greatlywhich is both the largest minorityof the US populationand the fastest growing ethnic groupwith an expected elderlyagepopulation increase frommilliontomillionDementia poses unique challenges to the Hispanic communitywith much higher rates of Alzheimer s diseasevsfor Caucasians ageand higher depressionof Hispanic caregivers vsof all caregiversin addition to several barriers to caresuch as lower levels of medical insurancehousehold incomeEnglish language proficiencyand educationwhich intensify Hispanic caregiver needs for dementia programs and help on how to deal with difficulties related to dementiaspecifically tools and culturally appropriate interventions on coping with caregivingThe expected outcomes following our project s completionPhase IIare linked to decreasing the caregiving burden for Hispanic dementia caregiverswith reduced stress depressive symptomsin additionwe also foresee indirect outcomesnot measured by this studyto improve caregiver quality of lifeextend the time dementia patients can remain under family care and residencereduce caregiver medication useand thus decrease nationwide healthcare costs