CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE SUPPORT GROUP PILOT FOR ELDERLY

PEOPLE

The objectives for the support group of the elderly peopleA. The family caregivers expressed two main objectives:

1)     A possibility to meet other caregivers regularly in a peer group.

2)     To find someone who was interested in the health and the strength of the caregivers.

B. The administrative group of the project specified the following objectives:

3)    To reinforce the strength of the caregivers.

4) To support the capacity of the participants' in the activities of daily living.

The support group activities in practice1)  Group meetings: once a month, à 3 hrs, totally 20 times.

The program:

• Introduction to the subject and discussion

• Physical exercises

• Coffee break

• Optionally training in the swimming pool/ practice of the nursing skills/ discussions about the actual topics

2) Common program: A lecture given by a physician and Christmas parties

3) An individual plan for maintaining the health status, and for a personal health training program

Practical evaluation

Robson (2001)

• co-operational and consultative by nature

• the focus is on practical aspects

• the model is suitable for measuring the level the goals have been attained to, or for producing information beneficial for the decision-making authorities.

The evaluation task and the dataTASK:

1. What kind of needs does the support group respond to?

2. What are the effects of the support group activities experienced by the caregivers and their care-receivers?

DATA:

• the descriptive interim report and final report of the project

• the documented interviews

• the diaries kept by the care givers

• the findings obtained by the preliminary- and follow-up measurements done to the acting parties in the project

 

The groups

GroupsN mean age N N N mean age N N

2001 2002 2003 2001 2002 2003Group 1 10 58 10 7 10 78 10 7Group 2 9 65 9 9 9 67 4 4Group 3 10 69 10 10 10 70 10 7

29 29 26 29 24 18

Caregivers Care-receivers

Pretests

1) The caregivers:

• physical examination

• “Screen for Caregiver Burden” (SCB) – test

• health interview

2) The care-receivers:

• self-estimated health

• self-estimated capacity in the activities of daily living

• ”Functional Independence Measure” (FIM)

Follow-up

• tests after 1 year and 2 years

• the same tests as in pre-tests + caregivers' subjective sense of strength

• checking-up of the programs of individual health maintenance and fitness training

Functional independence of care receivers in 2001 (n=29), 2002 (n=24) and 2003 (n=16); (FIM- scale)

0

5

10

15

20

25

FIM 2001 FIM 2002 FIM 2003

freq

uenc

es

Independent oralmost independent

Needs little help

Needs much help

Experienced burden of caregivers

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

2002 2003

freq

uenc

e not burden

somewhat burden

rather much burden

Caregiver burden in 2001 (n=29), 2002 (n=29) and 2003 (n=26)

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

SCB 2001 SCB 2002 SCB 2003

fre

qu

en

cy

no burden or verylitle burden

somewhat burden

rather much or verymuch burden

The results

• The experienced burden decreased during the follow-up although the health of the carereceivers decreased at the same time.

• The following variables were cross tabled with the burden: –the support given by relatives–the length of the care giving–the reason, why a person had started to be a family caregiver–living in the same household–being employed–the amount of the funding paid to the care giver

These variables had no connection to the burden

• The main explanation was the peer support group