Evaluating the REACH OUT Caregiver Intervention
By Richard Shank
Researchers at the Universities of Michigan and Alabama recently collaborated to translate previous research evaluations of the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH II) intervention into a condensed community-based program (REACH OUT).
REACH II is a program that grew out of funding from the National Institutes on Aging and Nursing Research, respectively. It is designed to address multiple sources of caregiving-related stress and burden; including a lack of knowledge about Alzheimer's disease, emotional well-being, limited access to suitable caregiving strategies, lack of social support and self-care, among others. For more information about REACH II, visit http://www.edc.pitt.edu/reach2/public/about.html.
REACH OUT was developed by an expert advisory committee for use in organizations such as Area Associations on Aging (AAAs). In REACH OUT, caregivers receive training in education about dementia, caregiving, caregiver health, stress and stress management, home safety, and behavior management. They also perform a risk appraisal that signals to case managers if a caregiver requires more support in a given area. Case managers provide each caregiver with three support/therapeutic phone calls and make four hour-long home visits, where they deliver the program’s curriculum.
The researchers evaluated the impact of REACH OUT in a quasi-experimental design. The program was delivered to 272 dementia caregivers in Alabama. They found that REACH OUT provided significant improvements in caregiver burden, social support, frustration, depression, health, care recipient behavior, mood, and a number of risk behaviors.
The researchers believe that this is one of the first research-based caregiver intervention programs that has been transferred successfully to a social service agency.
Source: Burgio, L.D., Collins, I.B., Schmid, B., Wharton, T., McCallum, D., DeCoster, J. March 2009. Translating the REACH Caregiver Intervention for use by Area Agency on Aging Personnel: The REACH OUT Program. The Gerontologist.
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