Testing Tele-Savvy, an On-Line Psychoeducation Program for Informal Alzheimer's Caregivers

We seek to make an effective and readily accessible psychoeducation program widely and sustainably available to dementia family caregivers. Taking advantage of the growing use of and familiarity with the internet by persons of caregiving age, the project will advance us toward that goal. We will test the program in an established context of collaboration across four NINR-supported Research Centers and NIA-supported Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers. Employing a wait-list control randomized design, we hope, primarily, to establish the program’s efficacy, but we hope also to demonstrate its broader availability and effectiveness in a variety of networks. We will pursue 3 primary aims (P) and an exploratory implementation (EX) aim: P Aim 1. Establish the efficacy of Tele-Savvy in reducing or retarding the affective impact (burden, depression, anxiety) associated with dementia family caregiving P Aim 2. Establish the efficacy of Tele-Savvy in promoting the quality of life of persons with dementia whose caregivers are trained in the Tele-Savvy program (agitation; Quality of Life; affect) P Aim 3. Establish the efficacy of Tele-Savvy in enhancing caregiver mastery and enacted self-management behaviors and test the mediating effect of mastery and enactment on Aim 1 & 2 outcomes EX Aim 1. Employing the RE-AIM implementation framework,29 demonstrate the transportability of Tele-Savvy for replication in other settings and provide appropriately revised materials for doing so.