Chiu M, Wesson V, Sadavoy J. Improving caregiving competence, stress coping, and mental well-being in informal dementia carers. World J Psychiatr 2013; 3(3): 65-73 [PMID: 24255878 DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v3.i3.65]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Mary Chiu, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, The Cyril and Dorothy, Joel and Jill Reitman Centre for Alzheimer’s Support and Training, Mount Sinai Hospital, 60 Murray Street, Room L1-012, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1X5, Canada. mchiu@mtsinai.on.ca
Research Domain of This Article
Geriatrics & Gerontology
Article-Type of This Article
Brief Article
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Psychiatr. Sep 22, 2013; 3(3): 65-73 Published online Sep 22, 2013. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v3.i3.65
Improving caregiving competence, stress coping, and mental well-being in informal dementia carers
Mary Chiu, Virginia Wesson, Joel Sadavoy
Mary Chiu, Virginia Wesson, Joel Sadavoy, Department of Psychiatry, The Cyril and Dorothy, Joel and Jill Reitman Centre for Alzheimer’s Support and Training, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1X5, Canada
Mary Chiu, Virginia Wesson, Joel Sadavoy, Department of Geriatric and General Psychiatry, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 3L9, Canada
Virginia Wesson, Joel Sadavoy, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 3L9, Canada
Author contributions: Chiu M was responsible for study design, data collection and analysis, and wrote the introduction, methods and results sections of the manuscript; Wesson V wrote the introduction, discussion and comments sections, is a co-developer of the CARERS program and has delivered the intervention to carers; Sadavoy J is the founding Reitman Centre program director, designed the intervention and evaluation framework, supervised the study design and edited the manuscript.
Supported by Social Development Partnerships Program, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, No. 8470775
Correspondence to: Mary Chiu, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, The Cyril and Dorothy, Joel and Jill Reitman Centre for Alzheimer’s Support and Training, Mount Sinai Hospital, 60 Murray Street, Room L1-012, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1X5, Canada. mchiu@mtsinai.on.ca
Telephone: +1-416-586-4800 Fax: +1-416-586-3231
Received: May 7, 2013 Revised: September 14, 2013 Accepted: September 16, 2013 Published online: September 22, 2013
Core Tip
Core tip: The “Coaching, Advocacy, Respite, Education, Relationship, and Simulation” (CARERS) Program is a comprehensive package of evidence-based interventions for informal carers comprised of 3 integrated components: group psychotherapy, Problem-Solving Techniques and skill acquisition for specific current challenging interactions in caregiving. The demonstrated outcomes are reduction of emotion-based coping, enhanced mastery, and reduced burden. The Program is structured, and requires active participation of carers as they acquire knowledge and develop caregiving competence. It is the first carer intervention to make systematic use of standardized patients to role play the spouse or parent with dementia, which allows for real-time coaching in managing current, specific, emotionally difficult interpersonal interactions.
