Clinical Practice Standards and Ethical Issues Applied to a Virtual Group Intervention for Spousal Caregivers of People with Alzheimer's

Abstract

Advances in technology have improved access to health and social services by offering more abundant and convenient choices for clients. In particular, the use of technology for delivering services to older adults and their families offers new possibilities for service delivery, by reaching people who are often isolated, and have difficulty accessing traditional services. Despite the continued advances in technology development and its integration into healthcare delivery, health care practitioners need to consider how to adapt and uphold clinical practice standards and address ethical issues in an e-health environment. Given the gap in the literature with respect to discussing these issues, this paper illustrates relevant issues in the context of developing and evaluating an Internet-based intervention for spousal caregivers of persons with dementia. Based on a four year project, a psychotherapeutic group intervention was delivered via the Internet to three groups of spousal caregivers. This article identifies some of the key practice standards and ethical issues that arise when using computer technology to deliver a psychotherapeutic group intervention. The article will also provide examples of relevant issues related to maintaining practice standards and ethical procedures that need to be addressed during the application of a computer-based psychotherapeutic group intervention for spousal caregivers of people with dementia.

Key Words:

• E-health
• group intervention
• caregiving
• older adults
• dementia