Telehealth Support for Dementia Caregivers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons Learned From the NYU Family Support Program.

OBJECTIVES: In response to the needs of dementia caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the NYU Langone Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Family Support Program (FSP) quickly transitioned to providing most services online. To understand how dementia caregivers experienced FSP services after the switch to video telehealth, we conducted qualitative interviews of spouse or partner dementia caregivers. PARTICIPANTS: Ten participants were recruited from a convenience sample of dementia spouse or partner caregivers who used one or more online FSP services offered during the pandemic. DESIGN: Caregivers engaged in semi-structured interviews held via videoconference between May and June 2020. Qualitative analysis of interviews was conducted according to the principles of framework analysis. RESULTS: Caregivers reported high satisfaction with the FSP pre-pandemic and continued to feel supported when services were provided online. They transitioned to video telehealth services with little difficulty. CONCLUSIONS: While video telehealth is frequently cited as beneficial for those in rural communities, socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, or homebound individuals, our findings suggest that video telehealth is also advantageous for dementia caregivers, given their unique barriers, including lack of time due to caregiving responsibilities, lack of respite care for the person with dementia, and the additional burdens of travel time to access in-person services.

Longitudinal study: understanding the lived experience of couples across the trajectory of dementia.

BACKGROUND: The longitudinal study, "Couples Lived Experiences," focuses on whether and how relationship characteristics of older couples change with the cognitive decline of one member of the couple, and how these changes affect each individual's emotional and physical health outcomes. Until now, most psychosocial research in dementia has focused either on the person with dementia (PWD) or the caregiver separately. The previous literature examining relationship characteristics and their role in outcomes for the caregiver and PWD is scant and suffers from methodological issues that limit the understanding of which relationship characteristics most influence outcomes for caregivers and care-receivers and what other factors may mitigate or exacerbate their effects. METHODS: We will enroll 300 dyads and collect information via online interviews of each member of the couple, every 6 months for 3 years. Relationship characteristics will be measured with a set of short, well-validated, and reliable self-report measures, plus the newly developed "Partnership Approach Questionnaire." Outcomes include global quality of life, subjective physical health, mental health (depression and anxiety), and status change (transitions in levels of care; i.e., placement in a nursing home). Longitudinal data will be used to investigate how relationship characteristics are affected by cognitive, functional, and behavioral changes, and the impact of these changes on health outcomes. Qualitative data will also be collected to enrich the interpretation of results of quantitative analyses. DISCUSSION: Psychosocial interventions have demonstrated effectiveness in promoting the wellbeing of PWD and their caregivers. The knowledge gained from this study can lead to the development or enhancement of targeted interventions for older couples that consider the impact of cognitive and functional decline on the relationship between members of a couple and thereby improve their wellbeing. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study has been registered with ClinicalTrials.gov. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier is: NCT04863495 .

Impact of the Educational Boost Your Brain and Memory Program Among Senior Living Residents.

This random assignment waitlist control intervention study examined an implementation of the educational Boost Your Brain and Memory cognitive fitness intervention in 12 senior living organizations. Older adult participants ( n = 166) completed measures of brain health knowledge, use of memory techniques, physical and intellectual activity, and mindfulness, at baseline and after the intervention group's completion of the course. Changes in knowledge scores and in self-reported physical and intellectual activity increased significantly more for intervention participants than for waitlist controls at the conclusion of the course. There were no significant changes between the groups in mindfulness or use of memory techniques. This suggests that in senior living settings Boost Your Brain and Memory is effective in educating participants about brain healthy behaviors and in motivating behavioral change in the areas of physical and intellectual activity.

Providing guidance to patients: physicians' views about the relative responsibilities of doctors and religious communities.

OBJECTIVES: Patients' religious communities often influence their medical decisions. To date, no study has examined what physicians think about the responsibilities borne by religious communities to provide guidance to patients in different clinical contexts. METHODS: We mailed a confidential, self-administered survey to a stratified random sample of 1504 US primary care physicians (PCPs). Criterion variables were PCPs' assessment of the responsibility that physicians and religious communities bear in providing guidance to patients in four different clinical scenarios. Predictors were physicians' demographic and religious characteristics. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 63%. PCPs indicated that once all medical options have been presented, physicians and religious communities both are responsible for providing guidance to patients about which option to choose (mean responsibility between "some" and "a lot" in all scenarios). Religious communities were believed to have the most responsibility in scenarios in which the patient will die within a few weeks or in which the patient faces a morally complex medical decision. PCPs who were older, Hispanic, or more religious tended to rate religious community responsibility more highly. Compared with physicians of other affiliations, evangelical Protestants tended to rate religious community responsibility highest relative to the responsibility of physicians. CONCLUSIONS: PCPs ascribe more responsibility to religious communities when medicine has less to offer (death is imminent) or the patient faces a decision that science cannot settle (a morally complex decision). Physicians' ideas about the clinical role of religious communities are associated with the religious characteristics of physicians themselves.