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Self Care TALK Study - Promoting Stroke Caregiver Health

NCT00646217 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 39

Last updated 2016-11-28

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Most stroke survivors return home, where their care is supported by family and friends. Although family caring at home is usually rewarding, it is often challenging, too. The demands and responsibilities of caring for a loved one at home can be stressful. The actual activities of caregiving vary according to the needs of the stroke survivor, but can include helping with bathing, dressing, eating, and many other activities. Caregivers must learn care techniques and how to manage changes in roles and lifestyle. While adjusting to these changes, caregivers may be advised to 'take care' of themselves, but may not receive guidance or support for doing this. In this study, we are testing a self-care intervention for older, spouse caregivers of persons with stroke to see how helpful the intervention is in reducing distress and in helping caregivers adopt and maintain healthy lifestyle behaviors.

We have developed an intervention for caregivers that is called Self-Care TALK. The intervention includes creating a health-promoting, self-care education and support partnership between caregivers and nurses through the use of weekly telephone conversations. Each conversation focuses on a health-related topic, such as: healthy habits, building self-esteem, focusing on the positive, avoiding role overload, communicating, and building meaning. The conversations follow a basic format, but also are unique to each person. Participants complete questionnaires before and after the intervention, so that we can test the effect of participation in Self-Care TALK on caregiver health.

We know that education and support about self-care can be achieved through partnerships between family caregivers and health care professionals. Our goal is to build on this knowledge in testing whether participation in the Self-Care TALK intervention will result in less distress and better health and well-being for spouse caregivers, compared to caregivers who receive no additional care beyond usual education and support. In working toward this goal, we are using a partnership approach, in which nurses and caregivers discuss several health-related topics and mutually identify creative solutions for caregivers to incorporate self-care and health-promotion strategies into their daily routines. Promoting healthy outcomes for caregivers is essential to supporting their personal well-being, and to fostering their ability to continue home care for their loved one.

Conditions

  • Caregiving

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Self Care Talk

6 weekly telephone sessions

Sponsors & Collaborators

Principal Investigators

  • Cynthia Teel, PhD, RN · University of Kansas

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
55 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2005-07-31
Primary Completion
2008-03-31
Completion
2010-02-28

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Companies

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT00646217 on ClinicalTrials.gov