Influence of Counseling Intervention on Enhancement of Awareness and Reducing Burdens among Caregivers of Patients with Alzheimer

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing-Ain Shams university

2 Assistant Professor of Community Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing- Helwan University

3 Lecturer of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing -Ain Shams university

Abstract

Background: Alzheimer’s disease is a social care problem and is one of the main
causes of disability in later life. Caring for a patient with Alzheimer’s disease is associated
with much of the burden on family members Aim of the study This study aimed to
investigate the influence of counseling intervention on enhancement of awareness and
reducing burdens among caregivers of patients with Alzheimer. Design: A quasi-
experimental design was used to conduct the study. Setting: This study was conducted at
Out-Patient Clinic of geriatric medical unit Centre in affiliated to Ain shams university
hospitals. A purposive sample was obtained included 50 caregivers accompanying their
Alzheimer's patient. The data was collected by using three tools: First tool: interviewing
questionnaire to assess socio-demographic data of caregivers and clinical history of patients.
Second tool: Caregivers' awareness regarding Alzheimer disease to assess the caregivers'
knowledge, attitude, and reported practices regarding Alzheimer disease. Third tool:
caregivers' burden scale to assess the level of burden among caregivers. Results: The study
results revealed that there was a highly statistically significant improvement of caregivers'
awareness, reported practices, and total scores of the caregivers’ burdens towards caring for
their patients with Alzheimer after implementation of the intervention (p < 0.001). As well
there was a highly statistically significant correlation between caregivers' burden and their
knowledge, attitudes, and reported practices toward their patients with Alzheimer (p < 0.001).
Conclusion: It was concluded that the application of counseling intervention improved
caregivers' awareness through enhancing their knowledge, attitudes, and reported practices
and reducing their burdens toward their patients with Alzheimer disease. Recommendations:
Further studies should be done for family caregivers in their early caring process to optimize
their well-being through nursing intervention programme on reducing the degree of burden
with improving their ability for solving the problem.

Keywords

Egyptian Journal of Health Care
Volume 12, Issue 2
June 2021
Pages 1445-1463

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