Translating Research to Practice: Applying the RE-AIM Framework to Caregiver Programs and Policies

The issue of caregiving—with the exponential growth in the number of caregivers; the huge costs to society, families, and individuals; and the development of effective interventions to address caregiver burden and health—recently emerged as a public health priority of national concern. Our presentation will establish and sustain strategies for moving effective caregiving interventions into widespread practice and ultimately promoting the health and well-being of our nation's caregivers. The RE-AIM framework, Reach-Effectiveness-Adoption-Implementation-Maintenance (www.re-aim.org) can help close the gap between research and practice. The application of each element in the RE-AIM framework to a leading caregiver intervention program, the Alabama's REACH Demonstration Project, suggests ways to use the framework. The specific examples from the Alabama's REACH Demonstration Project will demonstrate how RE-AIM can help raise and address important questions and the challenges inherent in translating research into practice in “real-world” settings as programs are adapted for application at the community, state, and national level. The case study of Alabama's REACH Demonstration Project helps to illustrate the value of this framework in raising relevant questions for improving intervention design in the early planning stages through assessment of impact. Of particular note is that the framework can even be used after programs are up and running—to apply a systematic approach for identifying adaptations that could significantly improve reach, adoption, implementation, maintenance—and ultimately effectiveness. Application of a framework such as RE-AIM can help practitioners and researchers anticipate pertinent issues as they plan, conduct, or evaluate caregiver intervention programs and policies.