Caregiver as Navigator: Develop Skills Online (CAN-DO)

Emory University

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Dementia

Treatments: Other: Healthy Living online course; Other: Caregiver as Navigator: Develop Skills Online (CAN-DO) program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT06177990

STUDY00006261

1R01AG082833-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study is designed to learn more about ways to promote caregiver mastery online. 270 dementia family caregivers will be enrolled and randomized to take the CAN-DO online course immediately or after a waiting period. They will participate in interviews before and after the course; total time of study participation is 6 months.

Full description

Family members and friends are the core of the uncoordinated system of care that tenuously maintains persons living with dementia in their community settings and delays their placement into more costly settings of institutional care, providing more contributed and out of pocket care support than Medicare and Medicaid combined.

The CAN-DO program fills a significant gap in caregiver psychoeducation programming by focusing not principally on day-to-day care management but on the many substantial system navigation tasks that caregivers assume. Supported by preliminary efficacy data, CAN-DO will employ state-of-the art asynchronous interactive learning methods to enhance caregivers' mastery of skills and confidence to navigate healthcare and other (legal, financial, social service, and family) systems that are crucial to the continued community living of persons affected with dementia illnesses.

This study will enroll 270 dementia family caregivers who will be randomized to take the CAN-DO course immediately or after a waiting period. They will participate in interviews before and after the course; total time of study participation is 6 months.

Enrollment: 270 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Family member or friend providing at least 4 hours per week of informal care for a community-dwelling person living with ADRD
• 18 years or older
• Has internet access
• Does not have to co-reside with the individual
• Understands, speaks, and reads English

Exclusion criteria

• Family caregiver plans to move care recipient to an institutional setting within the next six months
• Care recipient currently enrolled in hospice

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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270 participants in 3 patient groups

CAN-DO Immediate program group

Experimental group

Description:

Each participant will be engaged in a baseline interview. Subsequently, each will be asked to take part in follow-up interviews at points 2, 4, 6, and 8 months following the launch of their cohort.

Treatment:

Other: Caregiver as Navigator: Develop Skills Online (CAN-DO) program

Attention Control program group

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants will receive an online course about "Healthy Living" for the first 4 months after randomization. After the Attention Control participants complete their 4-month interview, they will be invited to participate in the CAN-DO program.

Treatment:

Other: Caregiver as Navigator: Develop Skills Online (CAN-DO) program

Other: Healthy Living online course

Usual care group

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants randomized to the Usual care group will not receive intervention from the study but after they complete their 4-month interview, they will be invited to participate in the CAN-DO program.

Treatment:

Other: Caregiver as Navigator: Develop Skills Online (CAN-DO) program