Building Better Caregivers: Development and Evaluation

The Building Better Caregivers workshop meets for 2.5 hours per week for 6 weeks in small groups of 10-16. It is peer-led (leaders already trained in the Stanford model must take a 2-day cross-training before leading a BBC workshop).

Participants will learn self-management skills such as decision making, goal setting, action planning, stress management, dealing with difficult behaviors, working with the health care system, planning for the future,building an exercise program, communication skills, healthy eating, etc.

All participants will complete follow up questionnaires and 6 and 12 months. They will have the option of completing the questionnaire by mail or telephone interview.

Once a particular workshop site is identified by a partner organization, Stanford will provide packets of consents and questionnaires to the site coordinator(non-Stanford). The site coordinator will either schedule an extra hour for the first meeting of the 6-week series, or an orientation meeting held a week or so before the workshop begins. During this time, the coordinator will announce to the prospective subjects that this study is being conducted and that they are invited to participate, and will pass out a consent, questionnaire and consent copy to each prospective participant. The consent and questionnaire are self-administered.

This study is longitudinal, so no randomization will take place.

Stanford holds no meetings, but receives the data. The site coordinators hold the orientation meetings. The workshops are scheduled by the various organizations, and they determine when and how the orientation time is scheduled. It will vary from site to site.

Inclusion criteria

• Family or friend caregiver of someone with cognitive impairment for at least 10 hours per week
• 18 years of age or older
• Able to attend a workshop 2.5 hours per week for 6 weeks
• Speaks English

Exclusion criteria

• Professional caregiver
• Under 18 years of age
• Non-English speaking