A Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Telephone Support Intervention for Diverse Family Caregivers of Persons With Dementia During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Caregivers of persons with dementia (PWDs) were socially isolated with little support during the COVID-19 pandemic "Stay-At-Home" order in the United States. To enhance social and emotional connection for diverse caregivers, a culturally/linguistically appropriate telephone intervention provided compassionate listening, mindful breathing, and COVID-19 safety education. The study purpose was to understand caregiving challenges and to evaluate the intervention for caregivers during the early pandemic using a qualitative approach. Twenty-three caregivers participated in the intervention provided by bilingual research assistants for 3 months. Call logs were used to describe the caregivers' dialogue. Thematic analysis identified (a) the challenges, including fear of coronavirus disease, providing around-the-clock care, and forced isolation and negative emotions; and (b) caregivers' experience with the intervention, including connecting with the outside, relief from emotional stress, reliable COVID-19 information, and reinformed caregiving skills. Results suggest that the telephone support was of benefit to diverse caregivers of PWDs during the pandemic by promoting social connection and reducing emotional distress.

Telephone support for dementia family caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic: Experiential differences in spouse and adult-child caregivers

Background Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, family caregivers stayed home with their person with dementia (PWD) continuously for 24/7. They faced limited social activity with lack of essential services such as adult daycare and in-home services. Social restrictions can worsen cognitive deterioration and increase behavioral problems of PWD, causing increased caregiver burden, distress, and loneliness. Caregiver research team developed a telephone support intervention with trained university students who provided emotional support, and COVID-19 information. The objective of the study is to identify the different needs in caring between spousal caregivers and adult-child caregivers for community-dwelling PWD during this pandemic. Methods Family caregivers were recruited through our previous home-visit family caregiver study. Trained bilingual university students conducted telephone support calls in English, Spanish, Korean or Vietnamese as preferred by caregiver participants, once a week during the 3 month of the early pandemic period. Students summarized each conversation in a call log for debriefing by a gerontology faculty. Thematic analysis using call logs was conducted and coded by two independent raters by using Dedoose, a qualitative data analysis tool. Similarities and differences between spousal caregivers and adult-child caregivers were identified. Results 14 spousal caregivers (11 were wives and 3 were husbands, mean age 67.4) and 11 adult-child caregivers (daughters, mean age 49) participated in the study. Three themes were identified: (1) spousal caregivers had high sense of being left alone and isolated while adult-child caregivers felt a greater responsibility for the family including PWD care, (2) both groups showed increased stress but for spouse caregivers it was due to worsening PWD behaviors, for adult-child caregivers it was the restriction on social interaction and concerns about losing jobs, (3) similarities in adapting to the COVID-19 safety recommendations and incorporating it into everyday life. Conclusion The findings showed an increase in stress and anxiety in both groups but the differences were: for spouse high level of loneness, difficulty with PWD behaviors;for adult-child caregivers greater burden due to family and reduced social life. Both groups followed COVID-19 safety protocol and highly appreciated the telephone-based emotional support during the pandemic.