The Savvy Caregiver program: the demonstrated effectiveness of a transportable dementia caregiver psychoeducation program.

This article is about the trial of a transportable psychoeducation program for family caregivers of older adults with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias that was based on a program developed and previously tested in an academic setting. Family caregivers were recruited by agencies in three states and invited to participate in a randomized trial of this six-session program. Questionnaires were administered prior to randomization and again 5 to 6 months later to assess program effect.

Self-administered screening for mild cognitive impairment: initial validation of a computerized test battery.

The Computer-Administered Neuropsychological Screen for Mild Cognitive Impairment (CANS-MCI), a computer administered, scored, and interpreted touch screen battery was evaluated for its ability to detect mild cognitive impairment. Subjects were three hundred ten community-dwelling elders who enrolled in an National Institute on Aging (NIA)-funded study. One-month test-retest reliability correlations were all significant (p<0.

Family caregiver satisfaction with the nursing home after placement of a relative with dementia.

Objective: This article examines family caregiver satisfaction after nursing home placement of a relative with Alzheimer disease or a related dementia. Determining what contributes to family caregiver satisfaction is a critical step toward implementing effective quality improvement strategies.

Methods: A stress process model is used to study caregiver satisfaction among 285 family caregivers in relation to primary objective stressors (stage of dementia, length of stay, length of time in caregiving role, visitation frequency, involvement in nursing home, and involvement in hands-on care), subjective stressors (expectations for care), caregiver characteristics (education, marital status, familial relationship, workforce participation, distance from nursing home, and age), and organizational resources (rural/urban location, profit/nonprofit ownership, special care unit [SCU] designation, and custodial unit designation).

The savvy caregiver program: developing and testing a transportable dementia family caregiver training program.

Purpose: This article reports on the development and field testing of the Savvy Caregiver Program, the transformation of a successful, academic-based caregiver psychoeducational program into a self-contained program that can be adopted in other locations.

Design And Methods: Program development began with a prototype of a 12-hr course with the aims of introducing family caregivers to the caregiving role, providing them with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to carry out that role, and alerting them to self-care issues. Results from initial field trials dictated a substantial revision of the workshop materials.

Community residential care: comparison of cognitively impaired and noncognitively impaired residents.

Community residential care (CRC) is growing, with cognitive impairment the most common reason for CRC placement. We enrolled cognitively impaired and noncognitively impaired residents, informal caregivers, and providers in 219 CRC facilities for this study. Residents with cognitive impairment were older (p < .

Resident outcomes of Medicaid-funded community residential care.

Purpose: Washington State's initiatives to increase the availability and quality of community residential care presented an opportunity to describe clients entering adult family homes, adult residential care, and assisted living and to identify outcomes of care.

Design And Methods: We enrolled 349 residents, 243 informal caregivers, and 299 providers in 219 settings. We conducted interviews at enrollment and 12 months later, and we collected data from state databases.

Potentially inappropriate medication use in community residential care facilities.

Objective: To describe the prevalence of potentially inappropriate medication use in community residential care (CRC) facilities at baseline, describe exposure to potentially inappropriate drugs during the 1-year follow-up, and examine characteristics associated with potentially inappropriate use.

Design: A cohort study was conducted using 282 individuals aged >/=65 years entering a CRC facility in a 3-county area in the Puget Sound region of Washington State between April 1998 and December 1998 on Medicaid funding.

Main Outcome Measure: Use of potentially inappropriate medications as defined by explicit criteria (e.

Discourse-derived perspectives: differentiating among spouses' experiences of caregiving.

A method of constant comparative analysis was used to code open-ended interviews with 132 spouse caregivers regarding their experiences in caregiving. Results of this analysis yielded 69 qualitative code categories. We used these categories to compare the caregivers on several groupings that the literature has identified as providing meaningful ways to differentiate among caregivers.

Burden among family caregivers of persons with Alzheimer's disease in nursing homes.

Purpose: This article examines family caregiver burden after placement of a relative with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia in a nursing home.

Design And Methods: A systems-oriented contextual approach was used to study burden in 276 family caregivers.

Results: SAS PROC MIXED analysis showed burden to be associated with caregiver age, length of time involved in caregiving, custodial units, involvement in hands-on care, and expectations for care.