Acceptance Commitment Therapy for Caregivers of People with Memory Loss

Summary

Family caregivers for persons with dementia report high levels of depression, stress, and burden. Caregivers' limited time, transportation constraints, and unpredictable schedules make on-line, self-guided interventions more accessible and scalable. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an established and effective in-person therapy, well-suited to the dementia care giving context where caregivers cannot minimize stress exposure, and report difficult thoughts and emotions. ACT for Caregivers is an on-line self-guided ACT intervention that showed effectiveness in a Stage I pilot (n=52) with participants reporting decreased depressive symptoms, stressful reactions to caring, and caregiver burden, and increased quality of life and positive aspects of caring (all p \<.05). Learning from the pilot, the current Stage III intervention will shorten the program from 10 sessions to 6 sessions. The investigators introduce a wait list randomized control trial (RCT) design with fully longitudinal mixed methods to evaluate ACT for Caregivers. Data will be collected at pretest, post-test, and 6-weeks follow-up. Study aims are: 1) to evaluate ACT for Caregivers in a larger sample using an RCT, 2) to understand user experiences and the process of change by collecting short response data from all participants at all time points and interviewing a subset of participants in-depth at two time points, 3) to integrate quantitative and qualitative findings and examine areas of convergence and divergence. This project offers a promising prevention and intervention program to support family caregivers that is scalable, at low cost and with high impact.

Conditions

• Caregiver Burden
• Behavioral and Psychiatric Symptoms of Dementia
• Depressive Symptoms
• Quality of Life
• Psychological Flexibility
• Sleep Quality
• Positive Aspects of Caregiving

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) combines the skills of acceptance, cognitive defusion, being present, self as context, values, and committed action to help individuals engage with a meaningful life. A goal of ACT is to help people develop psychological flexibility, meaning they can experience and live with difficult thoughts and emotions, and still pursue what matters to them. The current project is an online, self-guided, 6-session intervention. Each session is expected to take about 30 minutes each, and the entire course will take approximately 3-4 weeks to complete, as users are encouraged to take a few days in between sessions. Within each session, participants will read about concepts and ACT metaphors, apply ACT concepts to general and care- specific vignettes, and apply ACT concepts to their own lives and care situations. Interactive experiences are included in each session and ends with a printable summary with practice skills before proceeding.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Utah State University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Audrey C Juhasz, PhD · Utah State University

• Elizabeth Fauth, PhD · Utah State University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-02-16

Primary Completion

2024-01-21

Completion

2024-01-21

Countries

• United States

Study Locations