Telephone Intervention for Caregivers: Impacts of an Individualized Telephone Intervention Targeting the Caregiver of a Person with Alzheimer's with Nonaggressive Behavioural Symptoms

摘要

Caregiving for a person with Alzheimer's disease can have a negative impact on the individual who has to endorse this role. High levels of depressive symptoms, anxiety, caregiver burden, and desire to institutionalize have been reported in the literature. Those consequences justify the development of efficient interventions that will diminish the individual and societal repercussions of the role of caregiving for a person with Alzheimer's disease. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the impacts of a telephone intervention for caregivers of a person with Alzheimer's disease. To do so, 50 caregivers were recruited and randomly assigned to the control group (n = 25) or the intervention group (n = 25). Results show that caregivers who were assigned to the intervention group showed significant lower levels of depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, caregiver burden and desire to institutionalize. These results support the pertinence to develop interventions that can help caregivers cope with their role and with the management of the symptoms of the care receiver.