PROACTIVE DEMENTIA CARE: EARLY INTERVENTIONS WITH PERSONS WITH DEMENTIA AND THEIR CAREGIVERS

Background: Psychosocial interventions addressing caregiver burden in moderate-to-severe neurocognitive disorders have been extensively studied and use an array of validated outcome measures. Technological advances in imaging and biomarker technology allow for earlier diagnosis; however, psychosocial interventions and related outcomes measures have not kept pace. Current knowledge gaps include research on psychosocial interventions for: 1) early stages of the disease; and 2) caregiver-care recipient dyads. This presentation reports findings from a pilot study addressing these gaps. Methods: This study examined the effects of Proactive Dementia Care (PDC), an intervention for individuals with early-stage neurocognitive disorders, and their caregivers, conducted over a 3-year period at a University Cognitive Disorders Clinic in a metropolitan area in the Intermountain West. Eighty dyads (an individual diagnosed with a progressive dementia and a designated caregiver) were enrolled. Study subjects were randomized into either the PDC treatment arm or the Standard Dementia Specialist Care (SDSC) treatment-as-usual arm. The PDC intervention allowed clinicians to partner with care dyads at the time of diagnosis to develop a comprehensive set of planning steps and to support families in proactively completing these steps. Results: Data from multiple outcome measures was collected at 4 time-points for this study: baseline (n=80), 4 months (n=58), 12 months (n=54), and 18 months (n=54). Analyses were run to identify differences between the intervention and the treatment as usual group. This presentation will describe multiple outcome measures, report key findings, discuss lessons learned, and summarize next steps.