Wednesday, May 14, 2008
QUALITY CARE CONNECTIONS
Fletcher Allen Healthcare – Burlington, Vermont
Synopsis of projectThis program will establish the NYU Caregiver Intervention as part of the services of a major, regional Primary Care Physician’s office. In this way, rural caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s disease can receive the support they need as part of their normal medical visits. The NYU Caregiver Intervention, developed by Dr. Mary Mittelman, has been demonstrated to lessen caregiver depression and delay nursing home placement of individuals with dementia by providing individual and family counseling sessions, support groups, and as-needed telephone counseling sessions to family caregivers. Dr. Mittelman will assist with implementation of the program.
Intervention Delivered by
Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Delivered where
In the offices of 3 primary care physicians
Care Recipient Profile
Rural Alzheimer’s Disease patients age 65+
Caregiver Profile
Rural elder spousal caregivers of Alzheimer’s Disease patients
Number of participants
-
20 patients / 20 caregivers
-
1 dedicated social worker
Intervention strategy
6-session, multi-component, individualized counseling and support protocol for each family enrolled in the intervention.
Academic/technical assistance provided
NYU staff will provide clinical training and ongoing consultation to the licensed clinical social worker.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Mary Mittelman
Site Director: Anita L. Royer, LICSW
Project Update - April 1, 2008
With our challenge to translate the New York Caregiver Intervention into a pilot research project within 3 primary care practices at Fletcher Allen Health, we are on target in the following areas:
1. Establishing a service model for delivery of services and referral of clients
2. Receiving initial approval from Fletcher Allen leadership for validity and utility of the service model for health care professionals and families coping with Alzheimer’s Disease
3. Enrolling 3 physician practices out of 5 possible
4. Earning approval of our IRB and enrolling 7 out of 20 families for the program
5. Receiving media attention and publicity for the program
Project Update - April 16, 2008
On April 15, site director Anita Royer was interviewed for a segment of "Across the Fence." "Across the Fence" is a daily, 15-minute television program produced by University of Vermont Extension and the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station. The program airs weekdays at 12:10 p.m. on WCAX-TV, Channel 3.
The daily "Across the Fence" audience is approximately 25,000 viewers, ages 45+, across Vermont, northern New York, western New Hampshire and southern Quebec. "Across the Fence" covers a wide range of issues and topics; however, its primary goal is to inform viewers about activities being conducted by University of Vermont faculty, staff and students that benefit viewers and their communities.
Click here to watch Anita's appearance on "Across the Fence." The segment is titled, Supporting Individuals with Alzheimer's Disease and their Family Caregivers.
During a recent visit to Burlington, Vermont, representatives from the RCI and Johnson & Johnson visited the Fletcher Allen Primary Care Facility in Williston, Vermont. This is one of the three primary care clinics enrolled in the NYU caregiver project. There, site director Anita Royer gave an in-service briefing to the nursing staff about the availability of the Alzheimer’s caregiver support program. The nurses were very glad to have the opportunity to refer family caregivers into this program.
Project Update - May 5, 2008
On April 30, Principal Investigator Mary Mittelman, along with RCI's Director of National Initiatives, Laura Granberry and Anita Royer made a formal presentation about the project to a large crowd attending the annual statewide Alzheimer’s Association conference. Conference attendees were very interested in the translational work being done by Fletcher Allen. Caregivers attending the conference were happy to hear that a support program geared towards rural caregivers is taking place in their state. View the conference presentation here.
During RCI's and J&J's visit to Vermont, we met Mr. & Mrs. Greig. Mrs. Greig is enrolled in the Fletcher Allen program and is a full-time caregiver for her husband of 53 years, who is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Mrs. Greig originally agreed to become part of the Fletcher Allen research project so that she might help others who are in the same position as she, but she now expresses profound gratitude for the one-on-one counseling that she receives. Her wish is that every caregiver would have the same opportunity to receive the NYU caregiver intervention.
Many thanks to Mary Mittelman for taking the time to be part of the site visit. It was great to see in person her dedication to helping get her extremely successful caregiver intervention off the shelf and into use in rural communities around the state of Vermont.