Avaluació del programa d'educació per a la salut de cuidadors informals de pacients amb Alzheimer: projecte de recerca

Abstract

Background: The ageing of the population in associated with the increase of the evalence of dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease. The gradual, disabling and irreversible character of the Alzheimer's disease causes dependence and, there more, it forces the appearance of informal caregivers to provide for the needs of the patient. The evolution of the disease increases the care's requirements and the caregiver is at risk for suffering disorders, mainly in psychological and mental health, affecting their quality of life in key factors such as: perceived social support, overload and depression. With the creation of the program "My relative has Alzheimer and now, what happens?", I intend to give support, and interdisciplinary care that often lacks in informal main caregivers. The main objective to be achieved is: Evaluate the educational program "My relative has Alzheimer an now, what happens?", witch consists of psychoeducational interventions, alternatives to conventional ones, aimed at the informal caregivers of patients with Alzheimer, by professionals of various disciplines, while working on different aspects that positively affects their quality of life, with regards to the perception of social support, overload and the risk of depression. Material and Methods: This project is a clinical trial that will take place over a period of two years (2018-2020) with main caregivers of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer assisted at the CAP, and in the main old people's homes and day centers in Banyoles. In the first place, the choice of the relatives will be done deliberately of cover patients affected in the three different stages, and in the second place, they will be chosen at random amongst those who meet the inclusion criteria and to determine if they belong to the control group or to the intervention group. There will only be a follow up of the control group, and the education program "My relative has Alzheimer and now, what happens?" will be implemented to the intervention group in order to decrease the impact of the caregiver's quality of life. There are two groups of variables: relating to caregivers (both demographic and specific study of the level of overload, depression and support help) and the ones relating to the Alzheimer patient (stage of the disease and level of the patient's dependence). All variables are collected through a specialized survey, and the results will be analyze d with the statistical program SPSS. As a conclusion, it is estimated that the clinical practice results will reaffirm the importance of the systematic implementation of the program "My relative has Alzheimer and now, what happens?" to be able to improve the quality of life of the caregivers of pople with Alzheimer