Caregiver self-efficacy improves following complex care training: Results from the Learning Skills Together pilot study

Abstract

Family caregivers to persons living with dementia increasingly provide complex care tasks, though most (53%) do so without any training. "Complex care" includes medical/nursing tasks, as well as personal care tasks that require disease knowledge. Of the 67% of dementia caregivers who provide complex care, nearly half worry about making a mistake. To help caregivers feel more confident when providing complex care tasks, we developed and conducted a pilot study of the 4-week Learning Skills Together psychoeducation program (LST; N=35). Participants in LST reported high satisfaction with the program and found the information shared about complex care was easy to understand. Pre- and post-test data demonstrated improvements in mean caregiver self-efficacy at both 4-weeks and 8-weeks post-intervention (mean difference (MD)=1.0, SD= 1.6, p-value=0.004 and MD= 1.0, SD=2.2, p-value=0.038, respectively). Results demonstrate the potential for a brief psychoeducational program to prepare caregivers to provide complex care to persons living with dementia.

Keywords: Dementia; Family caregiving; Psychoeducation; Self-efficacy.

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest None.

Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Figures

Figure 1:. Construction of Study Sample

Note: All attendees were screened for eligibility. N=4 caregivers screened to participate in the program, were found to be ineligible for the study, and did not attend sessions