Time for Me: Development and results of an RCT of a kinship navigator self-compassion and care toolkit for caregivers by caregivers

Abstract

BackgroundKinship navigator programs were developed to help connect kinship families to needed resources and services. Peer to Peer Kinship Navigation (P2PKN) is one type of kinship navigation in which someone with lived kinship caregiving experience is employed to provide support to other caregivers experiencing similar challenges. Few tools have been developed and tested to support P2PKN. ObjectiveThis study adapted user-centric design principles to engage kinship caregivers in research design and implementation to explore self-compassion and self-care for kinship caregivers. Additionally, this study will examine the effect of a Time For Me (TM) Toolkit developed for and by peer navigators on self-care knowledge and practice.Participants and Setting: 60 kinship caregivers from a P2PKN Program were randomly assigned to a P2PKN Program (usual care, n = 30) and P2PKN Program with TM Toolkit (TM, n = 30). MethodsFrequencies showed how kinship caregivers rated culturally tailored self-compassion and care behaviors of health. Repeated Measures ANOVAS were used to test mean differences between groups on knowledge and practices of healthy behaviors. ResultsParticipants rated their knowledge of culturally tailored healthy behaviors better than their current practice. Participants in the TM group improved or stayed the same on their knowledge and practice of self-compassion and -care. Healthy sleep and coping showed the most improvement in practice. ConclusionsResearch suggests that TM Toolkit could improve self-compassion and care knowledge and practices for caregivers within a P2PKN program. Larger samples could scale up to build more robust evidence to show the utility of a TM Toolkit to support P2PKN.