Decide, Discover, and Do: An Intervention for Community-Dwelling Older Adults with Alzheimer's and Other Dementias

Project Summary Abstract Family caregivers are an integral part of the U Shealth care systemasof all care for persons with Alzheimer s disease is done by unpaid caregiversPersons with dementia also receive approximatelytimes the amount of informal care that a cognitively intact older adult does roughlyhours per monthSothere is an urgent need for products and programs that enable family caregivers to provide better care and a higher quality of life to persons living with dementiaTo this endin the proposed Phaseprojectwe will develop and test a new software application for unpaid family caregivers of persons with dementia residing at homeThis applicationwhich will be called DecideDiscoverDo!will consist of two main componentsThe first will be a repository of high qualityevidence based activities for persons with dementiathe second will be an interactivevideo based series of education courses tailored specifically to the needs of family caregiversRegarding the activity componenton any given day that the app is usedthe caregiver and care recipient will first decide together upon that day s themeby looking through the many choices included in the appe gFrench foodgardeningdogsetcThenhaving made that empowering decisionthe dyad will collaboratively discover new information about the topicThey will do this by taking part in an evidencebased activity that allows PWD to learn new things in fun and engaging waysFor examplethey might read a brief story about different types of French CuisineLater that daydaythe dyad will do a handsonexperiential activity related to the day s themeFor instancethey might follow a simple video included in the app to create a special French dessertBy providing unpaid caregivers with tools to engage their loved ones for long periods of time and in a variety of waysproviding care should become easier and the person s quality of life should improveThe Specific Aims of this Phaseproject are tocreate an Alpha version of the Dappwhich will provide caregivers with the guidanceeducationand activitiesneeded to provide better care to their loved one and facilitate meaningful activitiesinvestigate satisfaction and ease of use of the Dapp by obtaining feedback directly from FCs and their loved onesandinvestigate the distallonger termeffects of Don FCsin terms of burden and stigma Project Narrative Family caregivers are an integral part of the U Shealth care systemasof all care for persons with Alzheimer s disease is done by unpaid caregiversSothere is an urgent need for products and programs that enable family caregivers to provide better care and a higher quality of life to persons living with dementiaThrough the development and evaluation of an app that enables persons with dementia to engage in evidence based activities throughout the day with their unpaid caregiverand that provides interactive training tailored to family caregiversthe proposed project will help meet this need