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Dementia Caregivers' Link to Assistance and Resources

ConditionsAlzheimer Disease or Associated DisorderDementia
Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
AgeNot listed
SponsorVisiting Nurse Service of New York

About this trial

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if the Dementia Caregivers' Link to Assistance and Resources (DECLARE) program can improve support of, and engagement with, caregivers of home health patients with dementia. DECLARE includes a caregiver self-assessment that is reported in the home health patient record, and increased access to social work for cases including dementia caregivers. The main questions we aim to answer are:

* Will most caregivers who are offered the chance to complete an assessment choose to do so? * Will clinicians report that the assessment information was useful? * Will the rate of social work access increase for cases with patients with dementia who have involved family caregivers?

Researchers will compare DECLARE to usual care to see if taking part in the program increases caregiver self-efficacy and access to social work.

Participants will:

* Answer a short series of assessment questions and questions about their caregiving experiences at the beginning of the home health episode. * Receive a social work visit from a Licensed Social Worker trained in dementia care. * Answer a series of follow-up questions about their caregiving experiences at the end of the home health episode.

Eligibility criteria

This trial accepts healthy volunteers

Qualifiers

Individual must be listed as the caregiver of record for a patient receiving home health care from the partner home health agency and have a phone number on file; the patient must meet the inclusion criteria listed below.

Home health patient (care recipient) must have a documented dementia diagnosis on the home health assessment, be 65 years or older, and have Traditional Medicare or Medicare Advantage as their primary payer for the home health episode.

Disqualifiers

Caregivers are excluded if they are unable to communicate in English.

Trial design

Design model

Parallel

Treatments tested in this trial

  • Dementia Caregivers' Link to Assistance and Resources (DECLARE)

    Other intervention

    The intervention for treatment branches includes two parallel processes: (1) calling eligible caregivers to field a self-assessment instrument and upload caregiver responses to the patient record, and (2) identifying and flagging cases for expedited social work access with dementia-trained social workers.

Treatment groups

200 Participants
are divided into 2 treatment groups
Group A: Treatment (DECLARE)Experimental treatment 1 intervention
Group B: Comparison (Usual care)No intervention 0 interventions

Trial outcomes

Primary outcomes

1

Completion rate for DECLARE caregiver assessments

A proportion. Numerator: the number of eligible caregivers who complete the DECLARE assessment. Denominator: the number of eligible caregivers who are contacted and asked to complete the DECLARE assessment at the start of the episode.

Time frame
7 days
2

Caregiver Self-Efficacy

Caregiver self-efficacy, as measured by caregiver score on the Caregiver Self-Efficacy (CSE-4) 4-item scale developed by Merrilees, et al (2020).

Time frame
60 days

Secondary outcomes

1

Acceptability among Clinicians

Clinician ratings (in repeated surveys across the study timeframe) of DECLARE's usefulness and relevance to clinical practice on 5-item Likert scales.

Time frame
12 months
2

Access to Social Work

The proportion of eligible cases who receive a social work visit, comparing the treatment to comparison arms.

Time frame
12 months
3

Acceptability among Caregivers

Among caregivers in treatment arm, ratings on 5-item Likert scales of the value of the assessment and whether they would choose to complete the assessment again. (Questions fielded during follow-up surveys at the end of the home health episode)

Time frame
60 days

Other outcomes

Sponsors and contacts

Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.

Visiting Nurse Service of New York

Lead sponsor

National Institute on Aging (NIA)

Collaborator

Source ClinicalTrials.gov
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