Aligning a Carer Support Intervention to the Needs of Chinese Carers of People Living with Dementia in New Zealand

Abstract

Aims: The overall aim of my PhD study was to develop and evaluate the feasibility of a tailored virtual group intervention to reduce carer stress among Chinese carers of people living with dementia (PLwD). Methods: Three inner-connect studies over three phases were conducted to address the overall aim. For Phase 1, semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore the support needs of Chinese carers of PLwD during the COVID-19 pandemic, which informed the intervention design. For Phase 2, semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore perceptions of the adapted version of the iSupport manual, which contributed to developing the intervention contents and protocol. For Phase 3, a 12-week tailored iSupport virtual group intervention was delivered and evaluated through a mixed-method one-group pre-post-follow-up study. Results: For Phase 1, twelve participants highlighted four prominent themes: (1) social isolation; (2) emotional loneliness; (3) ambivalent feelings of being a carer; and (4) a variety of unmet needs. For Phase 2, twelve participants expressed three overarching perceptions on the iSupport manual: (1) usefulness, (2) complexities of using iSupport, and (3) suggestions for improvement. For Phase 3, four participants completed pre- and post-intervention assessments and interviews, but three participants completed the follow-up assessments and interviews. The overall attendance rate was 93.8%, with a median attendance rate of 11.3 out of 12 weekly sessions. Post-intervention assessment scores showed improvements in resilience, culture, social support, and quality of life, while levels of stress and burden decreased compared to the pre-intervention assessment. However, follow-up assessments demonstrated increases in levels of burden, stress, resilience, culture, and social support. Four key themes emerged from the post-intervention interviews: motivations, the usefulness of the intervention, negative experiences, and recommendations. Two main themes emerged from the follow-up interviews: usefulness and various needs. Additionally, several refinements were identified for both the research design and the intervention. Conclusions: The tailored iSupport virtual intervention shows promise for Chinese carers of PLwD. The contents and design of the intervention are feasible and have the potential to deliver effective support for Chinese carers of PLwD. However, further refinements are needed before conducting a large-scale, higher-quality trial to investigate its efficacy.