Development of a technology-enabled care coaching service for families caring for AD/ADRD and a 300-family study to assess the service's impact on CG financial knowledge, efficacy, strain and action.

5.8 million Americans age 65+ are living with AD/ADRD and by 2050, the number of people over the age of 65 with AD is projected to reach 13.8 million. There are currently 16.1 million unpaid U.S. caregivers providing care to people with dementia. Family caregivers are typically untrained in this work, uneducated about the disease and their treatment options, and struggling to take care of their loved ones while managing their own lives and families. The total lifetime cost of care is estimated at $357,297 per person with 70% of this borne by family caregivers in the form of unpaid care and out-of-pocket expenses, and many AD/ADRD caregivers bear the responsibility of making financial decisions on behalf of the person they’re caring for. Research has recently begun to examine the connection between financial strain and caregiver psychosocial well-being; many findings suggest that financial stress is a significant predictor of caregiver distress, which often may lead to suboptimal decision making and lower quality of care. In partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association, Kinto proposes to help to address this challenge by developing a solution which leverages mobile technology to deliver a highly scalable caregiver support and training service that combines three mutually reinforcing elements: Virtual Care Coaching, Personalized eLearning Curriculum, and Virtual Peer Support Groups. We are collaborating with the Alzheimer’s Association to provide trained and experienced Masters-level coaches who develop an individualized action plan with each client, imparting expert advice and introducing relevant curriculum modules to address each family’s specific needs. Regular peer support groups facilitated via video conference and in-app messaging underpin the coaching and curriculum by providing a forum for caregivers to share experiences, solutions, and empathy. In Phase I, we propose integrating these elements to develop a prototype platform and service, and testing the usability and efficacy of the solution to address caregivers’ financial literacy and planning needs. The prototype solution will be tested by a diverse group of caregivers in both English and US-Spanish to establish its impact on financial knowledge, efficacy, strain and action. Based on these results, and feedback from participant caregivers and coaches, Phase II proposes the development of a fully scalable and integrated solution that will then be tested in a detailed 300-person study. Kinto and the Alzheimer’s Association will collaborate to share results from these studies in peer-reviewed journals and at dementia and caregiving conferences.A wealth of evidence shows that supporting and training family caregivers of seniors with Alzheimer’s Disease and other serious conditions results in significant health benefits for both patients and caregivers, however recent technology innovations intended to increase the availability of such support have not been effective due to lack of personal relevance and low engagement with technology-only models. We are collaborating with the Alzheimer’s Association to advance a novel hybrid approach marrying human expert advisers with mobile technology in order to deliver a highly scalable support service that combines three mutually reinforcing elements: Virtual Care Coaching, Personalized eLearning Curriculum, and Virtual Peer Support Groups. Our proposed research and study intend to prove the effectiveness of this hybrid model in the context of supporting caregiving financial literacy and decision making, one of the greatest sources of stress and confusion amongst the tens of millions of dementia caregivers in the United States.