Using Technology to Support Care Partners for Persons with Alzheimer's Disease: Tele-STELLA

Consortium/Contractual Agreement Scope of Work Project Summary The Tele-STELLA (Support via TEchnology: Living and Learning with Advancing ADRD) intervention is designed to address the need for a personalized approach to assist families in managing the behavioral symptoms of dementia. This real-time educational intervention is designed for families caring for those in moderate to late-stage dementia. Tele-STELLA uses videoconferencing to connect CPs with experienced guides (e.g., nurses) who use cognitive behavioral techniques to assist CPs in identifying and implementing strategies to reduce distressing behavioral symptoms in both the person with dementia (PwD) and the CP. Our pilot work found that the beta version of Tele-STELLA reduced the frequency of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) and CP burden. Volunteers for this project will be recruited at three sites: OHSU (Portland, OR), Emory University (Atlanta, GA) and University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY). Subcontract Objectives 1. The subaward PI and their team commit to recruiting up to 50 research volunteers from their site to take part in this remote intervention. 2. The subaward PI will also serve as an intervention guide, which involves delivering the project’s education program via telemedicine to volunteers caregiving for someone with moderate to advanced cognitive impairment. Dr. Epps will work with volunteers from all three sites. 3. The subaward PI may contribute to collaborative development of manuscripts for submission to statistical, engineering and/or medical literatures. Cohort size, Recruitment and Participation Up to 50 volunteers will be recruited at the subaward site according to eligibility criteria described in the protocol. Participants must be caregiving for someone with moderate to advanced cognitive impairment. Volunteers will be asked to participate in two 8-session education protocols – one that includes four one-on-one sessions, then four sessions with three other caregivers; another that includes eight sessions with fifteen other caregivers. Once recruited by subaward team, OHSU staff will contact volunteers to complete enrollment, as well as coordinate and complete their online participation. Study Visits All study visits will be remotely coordinated and completed by research staff at Oregon Health & Science University. Reporting Requirements 1. The subaward PI will participate remotely in applicable team meetings, which will be held frequently (TBD) either by telephone or teleconference. 2. A yearly written report summarizing work completed and progress completed will be submitted two months before the completion of the reporting grant year. The subaward PI will report project and site-specific progress as appropriate. 3. Reporting of findings will be submitted to statistical, engineering and/or medical literatures within one year of data collection completion; manuscripts to be developed in collaboration with other investigators with designate authorship accordingly).