Aging / Alzheimer's Disease
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12503/29957
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Browsing Aging / Alzheimer's Disease by Author "Luk-Jones, Susanna"
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Item Improv and Caregiving: Effects on levels of depression, emotional resiliency, stress, and positive aspects of caregiving for people with dementias(2020) Luk-Jones, Susanna; Davis, Sandra; Parker, Kimberlee; Reuter, Kristen; Siddiq, ZaydPurpose: Caregivers for people with dementia often experience high levels of depression, stress, and overall burden. To help reduce these negative effects and foster a positive outlook towards caregiving, we conducted nine, two-hour caregiver workshops from February 2019 to November 2019. We hoped to determine whether improv therapy improved measures of caregiver burden, resilience, depression, stress, and self-reported positive aspects of caregiving and whether these measures significantly varied based on caregiver age and gender. Methods: 37 participants enrolled in improv cohorts over the 10-month study period and completed pre-workshop Resilience Score, Zarit Caregiver Burden, Patient Health Questionnaire, Stress Thermometer, and Positive Aspects of Caregiving evaluations. 25 participants completed the same forms after two weeks. Workshops consisted of improv techniques including "yes, and...," and storytelling. Results: Of the 37 participants, 24 identified as female and 13 identified as male. On average, female caregivers had higher pre-program PHQ-8, stress, and burden scores than their male counterparts (p-value < 0.05). Caregivers under the age of 70 (n=14) exhibited a significant improvement in burden scores after completing the improv workshop. Overall, there were no significant changes in pre vs post program measures for the general population of enrolled caregivers. Conclusion: Quantitative data did not provide clear evidence of sufficient improvement of burden for caregivers based on improv alone, but improv may be a beneficial addition to an existing dementia caregiver support and education program. Results also indicate that female caregivers in particular may benefit from support programs.Item Multidisciplinary Approach towards increasing Dementia awareness: Incorporating Project ECHO and Alzheimer's Community Forum into the Social-Ecological Model(2020) Luk-Jones, Susanna; Severance, Jennifer; Griffin, Melissa; Jose, RoslinPurpose: The prevalence of Alzheimer's in the United States is anticipated to increase by three-fold over next forty years. The Social-Ecological Model could be an effective framework in designing interventions to increase dementia awareness. This study uses two different approaches that affect distinct components of the Social-Ecological Model- Project ECHO impacting individual healthcare workers, and community forums increasing the overall community awareness on dementia. Objective: To portray the Social-Ecological model as a framework combining two dissimilar interventions addressing the focal issue of dementia. Methods: The study includes data from the first cohort of Project ECHO, and two Alzheimer's community forums held at Hurst and Arlington in 2019. Participant attendance information and surveys of Project ECHO were analyzed using Excel, and qualitative data from the community forums were analyzed by thematic qualitative analysis. Results: The first cohort of Project ECHO had a total of twenty participants encompassing seven healthcare disciplines, and partaking five sessions on dementia care. At the community level, with a combined total of seventy-five participants, educative sessions on dementia helped increase overall community awareness. Prominent barriers of language, unawareness, and stigma were identified. Major suggestions included increasing translation services, creating awareness, and volunteer recruitment. Conclusions: The Social-Ecological model can be used as a framework to address complex chronic public health issues such as dementia. While Project ECHO increased provider knowledge on dementia, community forums had a three-fold impact of creating awareness, understanding community perspectives, and relaying it to the governing authorities.