E-Technology for Chinese Dementia Caregivers

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chinese-American family caregivers to elders with dementia experience tremendous strain. The ordinary strain of caregiving, which is in itself significant, is compounded among Chinese-American caregivers due to cultural factors that restrict their use of external services, and social isolation that limits access to culturally competent information and services. To address unmet service needs and reduce disparities in caregiver outcomes, we implemented a Phase I SBIR project to develop a prototype culturally-competent website for Chinese-American family caregivers. We successfully accomplished all Phase I aims. The purpose of our Phase II SBIR project is to expand the prototype website (DementiaCareHome) to include a multi-media, multilingual, and interactive educational and support e-intervention for Chinese American family dementia caregivers. Specific Phase II aims are to: (1) expand the Phase I prototype into a fully functioning e-intervention program for Chinese-speaking family dementia caregivers; (2) conduct formative evaluations on context-rich caregiver stories and interactive features of the DementiaCareHome website; (3) conduct a randomized trial to evaluate effectiveness of the e-intervention on primary caregiver outcomes; and (4) market and commercialize the e-intervention to ensure its financial and administrative sustainability. DementiaCareHome will be developed to include the following features: (a) multi-lingual educational information to fulfill the diverse language needs of the Chinese American community; (b) tailored caregiver stories to engage the target audience; (c) interactive functions to help Chinese family caregivers interact with other caregivers, experts, and their own family members across geographical distance; and, (d) a range of culturally-specific issues common to dementia caregivers of varying Chinese cultural origins and/or immigration backgrounds integrated into its educational and interactive components. Importantly, we will also involve both end users (i.e., Chinese-American caregivers) and cultural/information brokers (i.e., healthcare professionals in the Chinese-American community) to ensure cultural competence in the final product, and to ensure success in community adoption and dissemination of the intervention. This SBIR Phase II proposal represents the first ever comprehensive e-intervention program for Chinese- American family caregivers. The resulting product will create an interactive online community for Chinese- American caregivers, with capabilities for reaching multiple strata of users in the Chinese-American community, and in so doing, provide an innovative way to reduce striking disparities in outcomes among Chinese-American family caregivers. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The purpose of this Phase II SBIR is to develop a multi-media, multilingual, and interactive psycho-educational e-intervention for Chinese American family dementia caregivers.