Video-Based Coping Skills Training for Caregivers

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In the just-completed Phase I, and as detailed in our Phase I Final Report (Appendix I), we have shown it is feasible to create a module of a Video that includes scenarios that are more relevant to the problems faced by Caregivers. We also have shown that it is feasible to recruit Caregivers of relatives with AD and other dementias who can use the tailored Caregiver Video (with Telephone Coaching) to enhance their ability to apply the skills taught on the Video to the situations they confront as Caregivers. In addition, we have modified our psychosocial test battery so as to make it more easily comprehensible and not burdensome to fill out. We are now ready to produce the complete Caregiver Video, to conduct an adequately powered randomized clinical trial to test its effectiveness in reducing (or preventing deterioration in) psychosocial risk factors and biomarkers of stress and increasing psychosocial well-being in Caregivers, and to document that these benefits are maintained over a relatively long follow-up period of six months. If this research is successful in demonstrating such benefits of the Caregiver Video with Telephone Coaching, it would lead to important societal benefits of reduced distress and improved health among the growing numbers of people in the U.S. who are Caregivers for relations with AD or other dementias. In addition to these benefits in terms of improved health among Caregivers, the prior research on behavioral interventions suggests the potential for significant medical costs reductions in the Caregiver population, with the even further potential of cost savings that could accrue if Caregivers' improved abilities to cope with the stresses they face resulted in reduced institutionalization rates among those they care for. Needless to say, successful demonstration of the effectiveness of the Caregiver Video with Telephone Coaching would also lead to enhanced commercial opportunities for marketing this product to the millions of people who are in, or about to enter the caregiving role.