Northern-Manhattan Hispanic Caregiver Intervention Effectiveness Study

All study participants were provided access to social support services at Riverstone Senior Life services

All participants received educational material about dementia and caregiving in addition to information about resources for persons with dementia and their caregivers, including resources at the Alzheimer's Association such as support groups, and clinical and service resources available citywide.

"The first component consists of 2 individual and 4 family counseling sessions. These sessions last between 1 and 1.5 hours. The second component of the intervention is participation in a caregiver support group . The third component of the treatment is ad hoc counseling. New psychiatric and behavioral problems of patients, which are generally more stressful than the need for assistance with activities of daily living or physical limitations, often precipitate ad hoc calls from caregivers."

All aspects of the REACH OUT Intervention involve problem solving techniques and the development of written action plans. The goal of this intervention is to engage the caregiver in joint problem-solving with the objective of creating a written action plan targeting specific caregiving problems. The basic steps of problem solving are: 1.Define the problem. 2. Set goals 3. Brainstorm with caregiver and List possible solutions on a pad of paper, 4. Select solutions, 5. Develop an action plan based on these solutions, 6. Implement the action plan, track progress, and make adjustments as needed