Translating EvidenceBased Caregiver Interventions to Practice: Value for Alzheimers and Dementia Fam

1
Translating Evidence-Based Caregiver
Interventions to PracticeValue for Alzheimers
and Dementia Family Caregivers

• Katie Maslow, Alzheimers Association
• Nov. 21, 2008

2
Alzheimers and Dementia Family Caregiver
Demographics and Burden

• In 2007, an estimated 9.8 million Americans age
  18 provided 8.4 billion hours of unpaid care for
  a family member or friend with Alzheimers/dementi
  a
• Family caregivers of people with
  Alzheimers/dementia have high levels of stress
  and burden 40 report high levels of emotional
  stress 1/3 have symptoms of depression
• Family caregivers of people with
  Alzheimers/dementia are more likely than
  non-caregivers to have poor self-reported health,
  reduced immune function, slow wound healing, and
  new hypertension and heart disease

3
Interventions To Help Family Caregivers of People
with Alzheimers/Dementia

• Over 20 years, many studies have been conducted
  to test interventions to help family caregivers
• Until recently, the results of these studies were
  generally perceived as lacking meaningful
  outcomes
• In 2006, after new publications on REACH, the NYU
  Caregiver Intervention, and other interventions,
  that perception changed
• If these interventions were drugs, it is
  hard to believe that they would not be on the
  fast track for approval. The magnitude of
  benefit and quality of evidence supporting these
  interventions considerably exceed those of
  currently approved pharmacologic therapies for
  dementia (Covinsky, Ann Int Med, Nov. 2006).

4
Moving Evidence-Based Interventions from Research
to Practice

• The interventions you hear about today and others
  like them can make a real difference it is very
  important to move them into practice.
• The Alzheimers Association thanks the following
  agencies for their support to date of at least 20
  projects to translate evidence-based
  Alzheimers/dementia family caregiver
  interventions to practice
• Administration on Aging
• Rosalynn Carter Institute and JJ
• Veterans Administration