USU gets $1.6M federal grant to expand digital mental health support for dementia caregivers

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Utah State University received a $1.6M grant from the Department of Defense to aid dementia caregivers.
• The initiative uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for emotional and psychological support.
• The program is self-guided online, enhancing accessibility for caregivers.

LOGAN — Nearly 7 million Americans live with dementia, with that number expected to double by 2060.

This also means more than 11 million Americans provide unpaid care for loved ones with dementia — a significant emotionally, mentally and physically demanding responsibility. And among the 11 million caregivers are thousands of active-duty service members, military spouses and veterans.

But a team of researchers at Utah State University is hoping to lend a much-needed hand through a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to expand accessible digital mental health interventions, "tailored specifically for family members caring for a loved one with dementia," an announcement from the university said.

"Traditional caregiver interventions do a wonderful job of teaching skills and disease management, and support groups are very valuable, but a lot of caregiver programs cannot actively build skills to teach caregivers how to cope with the emotional and psychological toll more effectively," Beth Fauth, a USU professor and director of the state-funded Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia Research Center, said in a statement. "By supporting this project, the DOD is helping us evaluate whether an online, self-guided therapeutic tool can help dementia caregivers with their emotional health as well as their physical health behaviors and relationships. We also use a brief version of the tool to help the person living with dementia manage their own stress, if they are able to participate."

Fauth is leading the initiative, which will build on years of clinical research to adapt Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to support dementia caregivers.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, according to the National Institutes of Health, differs from traditional behavioral therapies by integrating acceptance, mindfulness and value-based techniques with behavior change strategies to promote mental health and psychological flexibility.

This form of therapy aims address caregivers' emotional burden without the often impossible goal of eliminating stress. Instead, the intervention teaches caregivers how to live with the stress.

"It's not about making the stress go away, because for someone providing love and care to someone with dementia, it is a difficult role to be in even with support and resources," Fauth said. "Our program is designed to teach skills to help caregivers live with their stressful situation more comfortably."

The program will be delivered as a self-guided online intervention, making it more convenient for caregivers who cannot easily leave home or afford traditional therapy or clinic visits.

A key aspect of the program revolves around the inclusion of people with lived experience with dementia, caregiving, the military, and more.

"We need people from those communities informing us on what works best," Ty Aller, a researcher at the Institute for Disability Research, Policy and Practice and director of community engagement for the project, said in a statement.

Additional partners include the University of Massachusetts Boston and the University of Alaska Anchorage "because each group has military family networks," according to USU.

The initiative, USU said, aims to expand the accessibility of evidence-based mental health support to families across the U.S.

"We hope families and community partners come away knowing that real, effective supports exist for veterans and for all dementia caregivers. They are cost-effective and they can reach people in diverse locations," Aller said.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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