Mixed Etiology Dementias (MED) clinical trials

PST for Care Partners of Adults With Alzheimer's and Alzheimer'S-related Dementia

Caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer's disease and related dementia rarely get the preparation or training they need to manage their caregiving responsibilities and to successfully balance their own self-care and their caregiving roles. As a result, caregivers often experience caregiver burden, emotional distress, and substance abuse. Therefore, there is a critical need to support the emotional and social functioning of caregivers to improve their health and well-being and to prevent caregiver burden and poor coping. Problem solving training (PST) is an evidence-based approach that teaches and empowers individuals to solve emergent problems contributing to their depressive symptoms, helps improve coping skills and increases self-efficacy. However, critical gaps in knowledge and care remain regarding the necessary components of training (eg. How many sessions? What is the influence of personal factors?) that affect how effective PST is for individual caregivers. Finally, caregiver interventions have almost exclusively been tested in English-speaking caregivers, further contributing to existing health disparities among minority groups. To address this critical need, Dr. Shannon Juengst, Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation was awarded a new Texas Alzheimer's Research and Care Consortium Collaborative Research Grant entitled, "Problem Solving Training (PST) for English- and Spanish-speaking Care Partners of Adults with Alzheimer's and Alzheimer's Related Dementia." For this project, Dr. Juengst has assembled a strong, multidisciplinary team with Dr. Gladys Maestre, Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Director of the NIA funded-Alzheimer's Disease Resource Center for Minority and Aging Research and Memory Disorders Center at UT Rio Grande Valley and Dr. Matthew Smith, Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health and Co-Director of the Center for Population Health and Aging at Texas A&M University. This project will establish the necessary guidelines for an evidence-based, implementable problem-solving intervention for both English- and Spanish-speaking caregivers to improve their health and well-being and identify potential mechanisms of action for such training.