Engaging Communities in Evidence-based Interventions for Dementia Caregivers

Abstract

Caring for a family member with dementia is associated with unique stressors and burdens related to caregiving. Delivering interventions with proven efficacy to dementia caregivers remains a challenge because of the complexity of providing psychosocial support and skills training for caregivers within current models of formal healthcare services. This article focuses on implementation research and presents a dementia caregiver model program that merges an evidence-based intervention with a proven volunteer program, resulting in the implementation research program called Support Teams for Caregivers. In this article, we delineate our implementation model, describe the program, and present a case study.