VIDEO-BASED COPING SKILLS TRAINING F0R CAREGIVERS

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) or other dementias have been shown in extensive research to be more psychologically and biologically distressed than peers without caregiving responsibilities. Behavioral interventions teaching Caregivers skills to cope more effectively with the particular sorts of stressors they confront as Caregivers are more effective than information/support sorts of interventions. Successful implementation even of effective interventions has been hampered, however, by many barriers that prevent Caregivers from accessing them. Williams LifeSkills, Inc. (WLS), has developed a coping skills training program, the Williams LifeSkills Workshop, that has been shown efficacious in reducing both psychological and biological markers of stress, as well as improving psychosocial well-being in both distressed healthy groups and patients with cardiovascular disease. WLS has developed the Williams LifeSkills Video to make it possible to deliver this training effectively to large numbers of people in real world settings. The goal of this proposed Fast-Track SBIR application is to demonstrate in Phase I the feasibility of creating a new video product that, with the enhancement of telephone coaching, trains Caregivers to use ten coping skills modules used in WLS face-to-face training and in the current Williams LifeSkills Video. During Phase I, we will adapt the Video scenarios to be relevant to Caregivers1 stresses, produce one new Video module, and do a pilot test with 8 Caregivers to demonstrate the feasibility of Phase ll's aims to produce the complete new Caregiver Video and evaluate its effects on psychosocial risk factors and biomarkers of stress in a randomized controlled trial with a large group of Caregivers. Achievement of our aims would lead to an easily deliverable program that can improve the health and reduce medical costs for millions of Caregivers. This empirical support, produced by an experienced research team, would help market the new product to the growing numbers of Americans who are Caregivers for relatives with AD or other dementias.