Addressing Compassion Fatigue in Family Caregivers using a Mindfulness-based Smartphone Application

Abstract

The number of Americans receiving some level of healthcare at home is rapidly increasing, often leaving family members responsible for providing care for their loved ones. The impact on these unpaid caregivers, who must also balance the stressors of work and other daily responsibilities, can lead to compassion fatigue (CF). A growing body of evidence suggests that the practice of mindfulness meditation can reduce the symptoms of CF, such as stress, anxiety, and depression. This quality improvement project sought to determine if using a mindfulness-based smartphone app daily for 6 weeks would have any impact on CF in family caregivers. The project sought to determine whether it was feasible for caregivers to use the app and examined the impact on stress, depression, and anxiety. Participants completed two validated instruments before and after the 6-week intervention and results were compared using Wilcoxon signed rank tests. Results indicated a significant reduction in stress (p = .043) and a marginal reduction, though not significant, in depression (p = .075) and anxiety (p = .149). The caregivers found the app to be useful. Future projects should investigate the patterns of use by family members and use of the app as an adjunct to other interventions.