Caregivers clinical trials at UCSF

Many family and friend caregivers of persons living with dementia experience depression, stress, and other adverse health consequences due to the responsibilities of their caregiving role. These caregivers express a desire for education and support. The overarching goal of this project is to improve education and support for caregivers of persons living with dementia so that they can take better care of themselves and also their person living with dementia. Building Better Caregivers workshop is an online, 6-week, small group workshop for family caregivers of persons living with dementia that teaches them caregiving skills and how to manage difficult emotions, stress, and other challenging aspects of caregiving. Caregivers also receive support from other caregivers and two trained workshop facilitators and a workbook to keep. The workshop uses asynchronous delivery that allows caregivers to use materials at home when they have time day or night, self-pace their learning, and chat with other caregivers through threaded discussion board conversations. In this pilot embedded pragmatic clinical trial the investigators will evaluate the workshop among 108 caregivers who receive health care in urban areas of California and rural areas of New York. To achieve the project goals the investigators will (1) determine the feasibility of identifying, enrolling, and randomizing caregivers to a workshop group or wait-list group; (2) assess the feasibility of using electronic health record data as study outcomes, including depressive symptoms of caregivers and emergency room visits and hospitalizations of their patients with dementia; and (3) determine whether caregivers complete the workshop and think it is acceptable. If this pilot trial is successful, the investigators will have the information necessary to conduct a larger study among many additional caregivers with the long-term goal of improving their health and the well-being of their person with dementia.