Véronique Dubé
Université de Montréal
Canada
Title: Learning to become a family care-giver of a person recently diagnosed from Alzheimer’s disease: How a web-based intervention can help?
Biography
Biography: Véronique Dubé
Abstract
It has been known for several years that the support and care of a person diagnosed from Alzheimer’s disease are provided by family members, and often to the detriment of their own health and quality of life. The multiple responsibilities of care-givers are often perceived as stressors that require a repertoire of coping mechanisms. Over the last few years, a team from the Desjardins research chair in nursing care for seniors and their families has developed and evaluated a number of psychoeducational interventions striving to support family caregivers. Recently, the team explored an innovative approach by using information and communication technologies. A psycho-educational web-based intervention program promoting the adaptation to the care-givers’ role of a person recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease was designed. A pilot study assessed its implementation process and evaluated its effects on selected indicators of caregivers’ adaptation. The intervention program was offered to 20 care-givers who received an online training and tutoring by a healthcare professional over a period of seven weeks. Focused readings and exercises allowed family care-givers to acquire new supportive strategies based on their daily experiences as a care-giver. A brief description of the web sessions of this educational program will be presented as well as examples of the use of the web-based learning platform by family care-givers. This intervention approach, complementary to other types of interventions has several advantages, particularly for care-givers who are geographically distant from healthcare services and who have limited access to support groups or individual face to face interventions.