HealthPartners Institute
Mindfulness-Based Dementia Care Partner Program to Reduce Depressive Symptoms
Health Care Systems
- HealthPartners
- Sutter Health
- University of Michigan – Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center
Dr. Hanson is a senior research investigator and senior director of research at HealthPartners Neuroscience Center, HealthPartners Institute and co-director of research at the HealthPartners Center for Memory & Aging. For over 15 years, her research has focused on the development of novel therapeutic delivery methods for the treatment and prevention of neurologic diseases, especially those that impact older adults such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and stroke. In 2010, she initiated the Minnesota Memory Project, a longitudinal cohort study of memory changes in adults and associated risk and protective factors, and she continues to serve as the principal investigator. Her experience includes recruitment for clinical research and trials in dementia via electronic medical record and healthcare claims data, conducting trials of non-medication interventions including education and support for patients and caregivers, mindfulness-based stress reduction, and aromatherapy.
RATIONALE: While caregiving and being a care partner to a person living with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia (PLWD) can be rewarding, care partners often feel high levels of stress and burden, have low mood, and poor health.
OBJECTIVE: To test the feasibility of implementing a mindfulness program to reduce stress and symptoms of depression in care partners. We will pilot test a new way to collect real-world outcomes on care partners through an administrative set of data collected by a community non-profit organization that trains the program instructors.
SETTING: Three memory care clinics located in Minnesota, Michigan, and California.
POPULATION: Approximately 120 care partners of PLWD.
INTERVENTION: The intervention is an adaptation of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for care partners of PLWD called Mindfulness Based Dementia Care (MBDC). Developed by the Presence Care Project (www.presencecareproject.com), a community-based non-profit organization, MBDC offers a bridge between mindfulness practice and the dementia care exchange.
OUTCOMES: The primary clinical outcome is symptoms of depression, and the secondary clinical outcome is care partner burden. Implementation outcomes will measure the feasibility of implementation including the rate of program registration and completion, number of sessions attended, acceptability of virtual instruction, and completeness of data collection.
IMPACT: Findings from this pilot study will guide the design a large real-world trial to test the potential benefits of MBDC. Mindfulness has the potential to reduce stress and burden in care partners, reduce symptoms of depression, and ultimately improve overall health.