Class
Article
College
Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Abstract
With increased prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, family caregivers are providing up to ten years of unpaid care. Informal dementia caregivers are frequently exposed to behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) that can cause distress. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an empirically tested subset of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy shown to improve caregiver depressive symptoms, use of positive coping skills, and management of role demands. Caregivers face barriers to accessing face-to-face therapy because of factors that delay seeking help until post-crisis. Online ACT is easily accessible, navigable, and free, and has been demonstrated to improve mental health indicators in other populations. Program evaluation will consist of extant data from a pilot study of the first web-based ACT for dementia caregivers, conducted in Utah. Pre-, post-, and four-week follow-up post-tests were conducted, which 46 participants successfully completed all 10 sessions and tests, which is an appropriate sample for a pilot study. To be evaluated are which ACT skills are most helpful in decreasing BPSD distress and in increasing valued-based living (a central goal of ACT), and whether factors of perceived helpfulness and reported effort of practicing ACT skills moderate those outcomes. Correlation analyses will be performed on individual ACT session-related variables and regression analysis will evaluate predictor and outcome variables relating to all ACT sessions. Predictor variables include perceived helpfulness of practicing ACT skills between sessions, reported effort on those practice activities, and use of five ACT skills since intervention completion. Outcome variables include caregiver stress reactions to BPSD and progress toward values-based living.
Start Date
4-9-2020 2:00 PM
End Date
4-9-2020 3:00 PM
An Evaluation of Web-Based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Dementia Caregivers
With increased prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, family caregivers are providing up to ten years of unpaid care. Informal dementia caregivers are frequently exposed to behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) that can cause distress. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an empirically tested subset of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy shown to improve caregiver depressive symptoms, use of positive coping skills, and management of role demands. Caregivers face barriers to accessing face-to-face therapy because of factors that delay seeking help until post-crisis. Online ACT is easily accessible, navigable, and free, and has been demonstrated to improve mental health indicators in other populations. Program evaluation will consist of extant data from a pilot study of the first web-based ACT for dementia caregivers, conducted in Utah. Pre-, post-, and four-week follow-up post-tests were conducted, which 46 participants successfully completed all 10 sessions and tests, which is an appropriate sample for a pilot study. To be evaluated are which ACT skills are most helpful in decreasing BPSD distress and in increasing valued-based living (a central goal of ACT), and whether factors of perceived helpfulness and reported effort of practicing ACT skills moderate those outcomes. Correlation analyses will be performed on individual ACT session-related variables and regression analysis will evaluate predictor and outcome variables relating to all ACT sessions. Predictor variables include perceived helpfulness of practicing ACT skills between sessions, reported effort on those practice activities, and use of five ACT skills since intervention completion. Outcome variables include caregiver stress reactions to BPSD and progress toward values-based living.