Using Telehealth Technology to Support Family Caregivers: Description of a Pilot Intervention and Preliminary Results

ABSTRACT

This project was funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as a part of a national pilot program to design interventions that would support caregivers of older veterans. The specific project described here employed in-home messaging units, which are already widely used by the VA in disease-management programs, as a device to educate and support family caregivers (CGs) of older, functionally impaired veterans. The primary goal of the pilot program was to improve the well-being of both family CGs and their veteran care recipients (CRs) by (a) engaging CGs more actively and effectively in their veterans’ care, and (b) directly addressing the emotional needs of caregivers themselves. A three-group quasi-experimental design (instrumental support, instrumental+emotional support, wait-list control) was employed. Outcomes from the perspective of the caregiver, care recipient, and the health system were evaluated. In this paper, we further describe the experimental design of the program, the role of the technology employed in the program, a brief summary of common opinions of the intervention as voiced by caregivers and care recipients in the program, and a preliminary look at interim quantitative results 3 months prior to the planned final 6-month outcomes analysis.

KEYWORDS. :

• Telehealth
• caregivers
• technology
• noninstitutional care
• care systems