A qualitative exploration of changes and mechanisms of changes in a psychoeducational intervention for family dementia caregivers.

Background: 'Learning to feel better… and help better' is a psychoeducational intervention that aims to empower family caregivers of people with dementia by helping them cope better with the daily stress of dementia caregiving. The intervention has been adapted to a Swiss context and evaluated with a mixed-method design, yielding promising results in caregivers, such as a reduced subjective burden and improved self-efficacy. Qualitative findings have provided insight into potentially relevant intermediate changes that must be further explored to better understand how the intervention precipitates the achieved changes. We aim to qualitatively explore such changes, related mechanisms and key intervention components in the context of this intervention.

Methods: A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to achieve this aim. Changes, related mechanisms and key intervention components were identified by exploring the following: 1) longitudinal qualitative data, collected from 13 family caregivers via interviews performed before, during and after the intervention (39 interviews total) and 2) cross-sectional post-intervention interview data collected from 22 family caregivers (22 interviews).

Results: Experiencing calmness was the most important change for caregivers in the context of this intervention. The calmness model, developed based on the qualitative analysis, illustrates the intermediate changes that contributed to calmness, such as being able to cope with daily life and experiencing positive interactions with the family member with dementia. Related key intervention components were the coping strategy 'reframing', employed in diverse ways by the caregivers to reduce daily stress, and the didactic method 'active skills' training', which involved active participation by the caregivers and the guidance of a professional group leader. One important factor hampering changes in caregivers was having difficulties accepting the caregiver role or accepting the losses due to dementia.

Conclusion: The calmness model offers valuable insight into how this intervention can benefit family caregivers and aid in developing interventions targeting similar mechanisms and changes.

Trial registration: ISRCTN13512408 (registration date 17.05.2021, retrospectively registered).