Testing Heart Failure Resilience Intervention for Caregivers (HEROIC) in Advanced Heart Failure

Heart failure (HF) is a major source of suffering, the leading cause of death in the US (higher than dementia and cancer combined) and results in $108 billion annually in global health care costs to individuals, families and communities. Policies limiting reimbursement for HF readmissions increase strain on family caregivers to manage HF in the home with very little support. Despite advancements in guideline-directed medical therapies, HF patient outcomes are worse than the prior decade - including higher readmissions and mortality. Increased uptake of advanced HF surgical therapies including durable ventricular assist device and heart transplantation improve patient health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and survival but require high involvement of family caregivers. The impact of advanced HF care and policy falls on family caregivers who bear increased tasks and responsibilities over time while saving health systems over 7 billion per year. Caregiving for persons with HF, regardless of advanced therapies, is associated with worsening caregiver mental health, burden, stress, loss of social connections, disruptions to work, and increased financial strain. The HEart Failure Resilience Intervention for Caregivers (HEROIC) is a theory- and evidence-based primary palliative intervention including 5 individualized nurse-led sessions conducted over 10 weeks via video calls. HEROIC helps caregivers identify and address caregiving and palliative care needs for the patient, while also focusing on caregiver mental health, leveraging multi-level resilience resources: individual (goal-setting, self-care), community (social support, palliative/clinical, community) and existential (life purpose). The investigators now propose to conduct a mechanistic randomized controlled trial to test HEROIC mechanisms of action for caregivers (N=250) and persons with advanced HF for whom the caregivers provide care, including those treated medically, or with ventricular assist device or heart transplantation (N=250) in two health systems. Aim 1 focuses on caregiver self-efficacy and burden as mechanisms of action by which HEROIC improves caregiver mental health at 12 and maintenance at 24 weeks. Aim 2 focuses on patient mechanisms - increases in HF self-care and reductions in unmet palliative care needs as mediators of improvement in patient HRQOL at 12 and 24 weeks and unplanned acute care at 1 year. Aim 3 explores differences in mechanisms and response to intervention components by HF subgroup. The investigators will recruit a Patient and Family Advisory Council to guide the trial and intervention delivery. An exceptional study team with expertise in intersecting fields of research including HF, caregiving, and mixed methods research will guide the study. This innovative proposal directly responds to HF guidelines, policy initiatives and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) strategic priorities, including Grant Notice "NOT-HL-23-117" Palliative Care in the Care Continuum, and will provide evidence of a powerful primary palliative care strategy to demonstrate how HEROIC works (mechanisms) so that it can be scaled and adapted across settings and populations.