Workshops for Dementia Caregivers

The CHMA developed and provided a series of workshops, conducted by Laura Lee Phillips, MA, for community caregivers under the supervision of Dr. Burgio. The material presented in these workshops is based on The National Institute of Nursing research-funded REACH project, which is currently in its eighth year. These workshops were conducted at Northport hospital. To help the caregivers understand the material, the series was broken into three, three-hour segments. The first three-hour segment reviewed the basics of behavioral interventions and introduced the concept of a behavioral prescription. Caregivers were assisted in identifying a behavior problem they wished to alter, and were guided in defining clear obtainable goals to monitor the success of the behavioral prescription. During the week in between this workshop and the second, individualized behavioral prescription were designed for each caregiver. The second three-hour workshop focused on stress management skills and provided individual time to review the individual behavioral prescriptions. Between the second and third workshop, there was a three-week break to allow time for the behavioral prescription to take effect. During this three-week period, periodic calls were made to check on the caregivers’ progress and their understanding of the behavioral prescription.

In the final workshop the concept of pleasant events was introduced for both the caregiver and for the care recipient. This workshop closed with a review of the skills the caregivers had learned and progress made with the behavioral prescription. Participants were asked to give feedback on the workshops, with the majority of the responses being highly positive. The average score was reported at 1.275 out of 1.6. Essentially, the only negative feedback was a desire for the workshops to be of longer duration.

We are in the process currently of conducting train the trainer sessions with indigenous staff so that this technology can be transferred to Alzheimer’s caregivers on a continuing basis.

Workshop1 (PowerPoint)
Workshop 2 (PowerPoint)
Workshop 3 (PowerPoint)
Outline for Workshops (Word Document)