Researchers from Penn’s School of Nursing and the Alzheimer’s Association have discovered that caregivers of people with dementia experience improvements in their ability to manage stress upon consultation with helpline support.
The research was conducted by nursing professor and study lead Nancy Hodgson, nursing professors Subhash Aryal and Sonia Talwar, and the Alzheimer’s Association’s Kerry Finegan. The report focused on the ways in which caregivers benefit from calling helpline support, and it was published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
The report states that often, those who look after individuals diagnosed with dementia experience a range of negative emotions — a result of mental and physical exhaustion caused by hardships related to the condition. According to the research, “80% of callers benefited from a single consultation.”
Callers participated in the study between July 2021 and July 2022. During this time, 1,375 people requested one follow-up consultation, 83 requested two, and 13 requested three, according to the report.
“This pre-post design study compared study participants who received one, two, or three care consultation calls from the Alzheimer’s Association Helpline,” the researchers wrote. “Together, care consultants and callers created an action plan consisting of reasonable goals and next steps for the care partner to engage in to help address any issues and concerns discussed during the care consultation.”
Baseline and follow-up surveys evaluated caregiver confidence in several areas following the consultations, such as the ability to self-manage fatigue, pain, emotional distress, and other systems using the provided techniques.
“This research demonstrates that accessible, telephone-based support can meaningfully improve the emotional wellbeing of dementia caregivers without requiring in-person visits,” Hodgson said to Penn Today. “[This] is particularly valuable for those facing transportation barriers, geographic isolation, or inability to leave their loved ones with dementia.”
In order to examine the specific needs of caregivers during helpline calls, the research team has started conducting a qualitative analysis, identifying 21 specific caregiver needs using 1,000 call logs from the same period of time as the study. According to Hodgson, the top three concerns are information about home- and community-based services, techniques for communicating with people living with dementia, and emotional support.
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In November, the researchers will present their findings to the Gerontological Society of America to demonstrate what caregivers are seeking help with.
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Staff reporter Ryan Rucker covers the University’s graduate schools and can be reached at rucker@thedp.com. At Penn, he studies political science.
