Health promotion interventions for family caregivers: Effectiveness in serving the needs of the Jewish community

Informal family caregivers significantly reduce the cost of elder care and improve health care outcomes. Caregiver ‘burn-out' is of major concern, resulting in increased cost and negative health care outcomes to both giver and receiver. Literature identifies multiple interventions as effective in assisting the caregiver: support groups, respite, counseling, transportation assistance, and role competency.

Usual methods of health promotion and education may suffer from cultural incompetence when trying to reach out to the orthodox Jewish community. As a result, caregivers from this community may not possess the health knowledge and awareness of supportive services to maximize care for their loved one, or minimize their caregiver burden.

Design and Methods: In-depth semi-structured interviews of 16 Jewish community leaders and self-administered surveys of 160 caregivers in four large Jewish communities: Atlanta, Cleveland, New York City, Los Angeles. Community leaders were questioned about their health promotion and educational activities for eldercare and relieving caregiver burden, and their efforts to deal with differing culture and social networks in different segments of the Jewish community. Initiatives of secular and religious Jewish organizations are compared. The Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview was used in the surveys. Caregivers are also asked about their sources of health information, their awareness of services, and the helpfulness and cultural sensitivity of health educational materials found in doctors offices, senior centers and Jewish community centers. Comparisons are made across communities, and overall responses are compared to general population results from the literature. Strategies to better service this population group are identified.