Educating caregivers to help improve sleep in patients with dementia - learning from seniors to improve program design, intervention and evaluation

Introduction: Sleep problems among persons with dementia (PWD), including unsupervised wandering and pacing, can be dangerous for PWD and stressful for caregivers. We modified a research-based intervention “Nighttime Insomnia Treatment and Education for Alzheimer's Disease (NITE-AD)” to educate caregivers in adult day centers about non-pharmacologic interventions that might improve sleep in PWDs. The program will be conducted with caregivers of PWD in a 5-week, group delivery format. To validate the appropriateness of our program materials, recruitment strategies, and curriculum, we organized two feedback sessions comprised of older adults from Lifelong Learning Institute (LLI), located within the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Nova Southeastern University.

Methods: Older adults were recruited from the LLI to attend one of the two feedback sessions, each 1˝ hours long. Sessions were oral group discussion, facilitated by the Sleep Educator. Notes were taken by two project team members and summarized for review by the project team. Attendees were given a $20 gift card to a local supermarket for their participation.

Results: Twenty-four participants attended one of the two feedback sessions. Participant feedback, which will be presented in greater detail, included numerous programmatic recommendations including recruitment flyer wording, inclusion and exclusion criteria refinement and program script edits.

Conclusion: Engaging feedback from older adults on the modified NITE-AD program resulted in significant changes to anticipated program delivery. We anticipate that having engaged the targeted community in program design, implementation, and evaluation materials will produce a more appropriate program for community stakeholders.