Learning Skills Together Pilot Study

The University of Texas System (UT)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Self Efficacy; Family Caregiving; Intervention; Complex Care

Treatments: Behavioral: Learning Skills Together

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04428034

HSC20200410H

Details and patient eligibility

About

The Learning Skills Together (LST) program is a synchronous web-based educational intervention developed to address the essential need for training to equip family caregivers to someone with mid-stage Alzheimer's disease to confidently provide complex care tasks.The purpose of this pilot study is to evaluate the feasibility of delivering LST, the program's acceptability to caregivers, and likelihood of effecting caregivers self-efficacy and mastery.

Enrollment: 41 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Family member (including families of choice) to an individual living with Alzheimer's disease who has received a diagnosis from a physician
• Ages 18 and old
• Provides assistance with at least two instrumental activities of daily living or one activity of daily living
• Care recipient is described as being within mid-stage Alzheimer's Disease
• There are no plans to place the care recipient in a skilled nursing facility within the next 3 months

Exclusion criteria

• The caregiver is paid to provide care
• The caregiver does not have reliable access to a computer and internet
• The caregiver is unable to read and speak English

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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41 participants in 1 patient group

Learning Skills Together Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in the Learning Skills Together program will begin their participation with a one-on-one phone call with an interventionist, who will ensure the participant is prepared to to attend the group sessions (e.g., familiar with videoconference technology) and will help the participant to set individual goals. The caregiver participant will then attend 4, group-based sessions lasting approximately 1.5 hours each, to learn about common complex care tasks managed by family caregivers to someone with mid-stage Alzheimer's disease, such as managing behavioral symptoms of dementia, incontinence, nutrition, transferring, medication management, and more. Sessions will integrate interactive activities, such as videos, case studies, and discussions. Approximately four weeks later, caregivers will be asked to attend a group reflection session to discuss application of what was learned and progress in meeting individual goals.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Learning Skills Together