Feasibility of the Remembering Warmth and Safeness Intervention in older ADRD caregivers

• Published in: Geriatric nursing (New York) 2024-09, Vol.59, p.40-47
• Main Authors: Fleury, Julie, Komnenich, Pauline, Coon, David W., Pituch, Keenan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Caregivers - psychology; Caregiving; Dementia; Dementia - nursing; Dementia - psychology; Feasibility Studies; Feeling safe; Female; Geriatrics; Humans; Intervention; Male; Memories of warmth and safeness; Memory; Middle Aged
• ISSN: 0197-4572; 1528-3984; 1528-3984
• DOI: 10.1016/j.gerinurse.2024.06.045

•The number of adults in the U.S. aged 65 years and older living with Alzheimer Disease and related dementias (ADRD) is projected to increase significantly in the coming decades.•ADRD informal caregivers are essential resources, providing for the care recipient to remain at home from diagnosis to end-of-life.•Current ADRD caregiving intervention research prioritizes burden and distress, with variable effects.•The Remembering Warmth and Safeness Intervention advances a new perspective, engaging safety signals in memories of warmth and safeness to cultivate feeling safe and contribute to well-being in older ADRD caregivers.•Using a within-subjects pre-post design, this study provides support for the feasibility and empirical promise of the Remembering Warmth and Safeness Intervention in older ADRD caregivers. The number of older adults in the U.S. living with ADRD is projected to increase dramatically by 2060. As older adults increasingly assume informal caregiving responsibilities, community-based intervention to sustain caregiver well-being is a dementia research priority. To evaluate the feasibility of the RWSI among older ADRD caregivers. The RWSI is informed by the Neurovisceral Integration Model, in which memories that engage safety signals cultivate feelings of safety and well-being. A within-subjects pre/post-intervention design with older ADRD caregivers to evaluate feasibility (acceptability, demand, fidelity) and empirical promise (well-being). The feasibility of the RWSI, implemented with fidelity, was strongly endorsed, as participants attended each intervention session, after which reported experiencing feelings of warmth and safeness, and provided the highest possible acceptability ratings. Participant narratives provided corroboration. Findings support the feasibility of the RWSI in older ADRD caregivers, providing the basis for continued research.