Resilient Together for Dementia: A Live Video Resiliency Dyadic Intervention for Persons With Dementia and Their Care-partners Early After Diagnosis
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Summary
This study will evaluate the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of the novel Resilient Together for Dementia (RT-D) intervention for couples following dementia diagnoses. The primary target is emotional distress, and the program aims to prevent chronic distress in at-risk couples.
Description
Both persons living with dementia and their spousal care-partners experience high levels of clinically elevated emotional distress, which can become chronic without treatment and negatively impact the health, quality of life, communication, and care-planning of both partners. A tailored dyadic intervention, such as the proposed Resilient Together for Dementia, delivered over live video to this at risk population has the potential to prevent chronic emotional distress and preserve quality of life for PWDs and their loved ones. A pilot feasibility randomized control trial (RCT; Aim 3; NIA Stage…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria: * Recent (\~3 month) chart documented ADRD diagnosis, * ADRD symptom onset after age 65 * Cognitive assessment scores and symptoms consistent with early stage dementia, as determined by the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale scores of .5 or 1.0 * Cognitive awareness of their problems (as determined by the treating neurologist), and ability to understand study and research protocol, as determined by a standardized teach-back method assessment Additional inclusion criteria for dyads are: * English speaking adults (18 years or older) * Dyad lives together * At least one partner…
Interventions
- BehavioralResilient Together for Dementia
RT-D has been developed based on feedback from couples and dementia clinicians as well as prior successful dyadic interventions. RT-D was developed based on the Recovering Together (RT) dyadic intervention for acute neurological illnesses and is being adapted to address the needs of couples navigating new dementia diagnoses.
- BehavioralMEUC
The MEUC condition was also developed based on the comparison trial in the Recovering Together dyadic intervention, and was adapted based on feedback from prior studies. The program is self-guided and provides educational information similar to the RT-D condition, but with no skills practice or weekly sessions with a therapist.
Location
- Brain Injury Research Center at Mount SinaiNew York, New York