Study Needs Families Who Have Or Are Going To

Move a Loved One Due To Memory Loss

ARE YOU CURRENTLY PLACING, OR HAVE RECENTLY PLACED A FAMILY MEMBER WITH A COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT INTO A RESIDENTIAL CARE FACILITY OR A MEMORY UNIT?

WOULD YOU LIKE SUPPORT AND INFORMATION TO ASSIST YOU DURING THIS OFTEN STRESSFUL PROCESS?

IF SO YOU MAY BE ELIGIBLE FOR A NEW PILOT PROJECT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

• Researchers at the University Of Minnesota School of Nursing are looking for volunteers for their new pilot project the “Residential Care Transition Module.”

• The goal of this study is to develop, implement, and evaluate a psychosocial program that helps families manage potential stressors and issues that may arise when planning to transition a relative with a cognitive impairment into a residential care facility.  Through counseling, mediation, and education, this project will present family caregivers with coping strategies and other resources to help ease this often stressful time.

• Participating adult family caregivers will be randomly assigned (like flipping a coin) to receive the support program or the usual care.

• All participants will take part in a series of interviews and those assigned to the treatment group will meet with a transition coach.

• All participants will have the opportunity to speak about their experiences transitioning a family care recipient into a residential facility. 

INTERESTED?  PLEASE CONTACT MARK REESE,

reese131@umn.edu; phone: 612-272-3016

For More Information Read Below

“The Residential Care Transition Module”

The University of Minnesota School of Nursing

Principal Investigator: Joseph E. Gaugler, PhD

Purpose:Admitting a relative to a residential care facility is a life cycle transition, and one that can result in challenges or feelings of distress to families.  The purpose of this project is to develop, implement, and evaluate a psychosocial program that helps families manage potential stressors and issues that may arise when planning to admit a relative to residential care facility.  Through counseling, mediation, and education, the Residential Care Transition Module (RCTM) will present family caregivers with coping strategies and other resources improve their adaptation to a relative’s residential care admission.

Who is conducting this study?  Dr. Joe Gaugler, Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and the Clinical Translational Science Institute, is conducting this study.  He will also be working with a transition coach, Mark Reese MA, LPC, LAMFT at the University of Minnesota who will provide the coaching and support for this study. This study has received University of Minnesota Institutional Review Board Approval (#1203S11723).

Who is the RCTM  for? The target population for the RCTM is: 1) family members who have a relative with dementia on a wait list, currently in the transition process, or who have recently entered a residential care facility, memory unit or nursing facility; and 2) those family members who are most responsible for caring for the relative about to enter a nursing home or similar facility.  We plan to identify and recruit 50 family members to participate.

What is the RCTM?  If you express interest in participating in this study, Mark Reese will contact you to set up an in-person interview to discuss this study and to determine if you are willing to provide consent to participate.  At this time, Mr. Reese will spend 5 minutes asking basic questions to determine if you meet the study eligibility criteria.  If you do and consent to this process then you will complete an initial interview, which will ask you a number of questions about you and your relative.  This first interview will be the longest (it should take about one hour, give or take 15 minutes).  After the first interview is completed, you will be randomly assigned (i.e. like the flip of a coin) into a group that receives the counseling protocol or another group, referred to as the usual care group or comparison group

Individuals in the usual care group will not receive formal counseling.  If you really feel like you need to talk to the transition coach, the contact information will be provided to you.

For those randomly assigned to the RCTM protocol, we will provide you with 6 in-person or telephone sessions with the RCTM transition coach, Mr. Reese.  Three weekly consultation sessions will take place immediately after you complete the initial interview.  These sessions will focus on your emotions and stress concerning your relative’s residential care entry, education about the residential environment, discussion of communications skills with staff, and the impact of loss and anticipatory grief associated with the admission process.  We anticipate each of these sessions to last anywhere from 45-120 minutes.

After completing these three weekly sessions, three monthly sessions will take place.  These monthly sessions will focus on processing your experience, helping you review and validate the decision to admit your relative to the residential care setting, and how to effectively work with facility staff to optimize the care provided to your relative.

At four months and again at eight months after you enroll in this study, you will be asked to complete a follow up interview (approximately 60 minutes).  If your relative does pass away during the study, we will ask a modified ‘bereavement’ version of this interview (45 minutes).

Following completion of the face-to-face sessions and final survey, participants in the treatment group will be asked to participate in two focus group discussions to better help us understand why the RCTM did or did not work for you.

Field notes will be kept by Mr. Reese documenting how often you met with the transition coach, and how long these meetings took.  The notes will also contain general topics discussed during the face-to-face session.  These notes will help Dr. Gaugler determine how well the RCTM actually worked.

When will this study take place?  Dr. Gaugler is planning on implementing this project immediately.  He is currently seeking participants, and residential care facilities, memory units and nursing homes to partner with for 4-6 months of recruitment and implementation of the research protocol.

Who is conducting the study?  Dr. Joe Gaugler, Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and Center on Aging at The University of Minnesota, is conducting this study.  Mark Reese, M.A., LPC, LAMFT will serve as the Transition Coach on this project: reese131@umn.edu; phone: 612-272-3016

Joseph E. Gaugler, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, School of Nursing, University of Minnesota

Phone: 612-626-2485, Email: gaug0015@umn.edu,

6-153 Weaver-Densford Hall, 1331, 308 Harvard Street S.E., Minneapolis, MN  55455