Program providers’ perception of caregiving competency of family caregivers according to dementia stage

Abstract

AbstractPurposeFamily caregivers take significant roles in helping their relatives with dementia to meet daily life needs. Various support programs have been developed to decrease family caregivers’ stress and burden. Among the studies conducted so far, there is a lack of programs developed based on caregiving competencies according to each stage of dementia. To prepare for the development of a program based on caregiving competencies for stages of dementia, this study aimed to investigate the appropriateness and importance of family caregivers’ caregiving competency from the perspectives of the program providers.Method175 program providers who participated in a support program for family caregivers of people with dementia were recruited in this study. We used a 40‐item questionnaire, which consisted of caregiving competencies according to stages of dementia: 14 items for the early stage, 14 items for the middle stage, and 12 items for the advanced stage. For each item, the participants were asked to score its appropriateness and importance using 5 Likert scale.ResultStudy findings indicated dementia caregiving competencies that scored as most appropriateness and importance in different dementia stages. Specifically, “Eliminating prejudice against dementia” (4.07±0.75, 4.14±0.74, respectively) were identified in the early stage, “Managing family caregivers’ stress” (4.07±0.76, 4.15±0.74, respectively) in the middle stage, and “Properly utilizing necessary long‐term care services” (4.19±0.77, 4.26±0.72, respectively) and “Decision making with other family members so that people with dementia can end their lives comfortably” (4.09±0.74, 4.14±0.73, respectively) in the advanced stage. Whereas, care competencies that gained the lowest scores of appropriateness and importance comprised: “Medical and legal documents required after diagnosis of dementia” (3.80±0.78, 3.87±.077, respectively) in the early stage, “Participating in self‐support groups” (3.79±0.79, 3.90±.078, respectively) in the middle stage, and “Share valuable memories with dementia” (3.75±0.77, 3.83±.078, respectively) in the advanced stage.ConclusionThis study figured out the importance of the caregiving competencies that should be delivered to the family caregivers of people with dementia from the perspectives of the program providers. Findings from this work would be valuable resources in developing effective family support programs to improve the dementia caregiving competency of family caregivers during their caregiving journey.