Research in Aging Support for Alzheimer’s Disease
Caregivers
Dr. Joe Gaugler, Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing
and Center on Aging at The University of Minnesota is conducting a
study to determine how effective individually tailored,
comprehensive counseling and support is for adult children who care
for parents with Alzheimer’s disease or similar disorders. He will
also be working with a study counselor at the University of
Minnesota who will provide the counseling and support for this
study.
Adult children of parents with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s
disease or a similar memory disorder are eligible to participate.
Parents must also live at home alone, with adult children, or with
other relatives in the community. Although all family members will
be invited to take part in individual/family counseling sessions,
only adult children who are most responsible for the care and
well-being of the parent will participate in the periodic,
in-depth interviews. Participants will be randomized (i.e., like
the flip of a coin) into a usual care control that will receive
information and a counseling condition that will receive the
following services: 1) 6 individual and family counseling sessions
with a trained counselor to determine the individual needs of each
caregiving family and devise individually-tailored treatment plans
to assist those families during the first four months; 2) support
group attendance, either at a group administered by the study
counselor or one selected by the caregiver; and 3) ad hoc
counseling, where the caregiving can contact the counselor at any
time to discuss crises or other issues. Regardless of experimental
group, Dr. Gaugler will administer in-depth interviews every 4
months during the 1st year of study participation and every 6 months
thereafter to provide a wealth of data on caregiving background, the
functional, behavioral, and cognitive status of the parent, service
utilization, and caregiver’s psychological and emotional status.
Participation in the study is anticipated to last from 1 to 3¾
years, depending on when caregivers decide to participate and are
recruited during the course of the project.
Contact Dr. Joe Gaugler with
any questions, concerns, and or interest in participating.
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