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Caregivers saw their burden reduced; drops in depressive symptoms and their related daily impacts;
fewer frustrations, including those that have clinical potential for abuse; and decreases in dementia-related behaviors from
the Veterans they cared for. Caregivers also reported they were able to spend fewer hours per day devoted to caregiving
duties.
“Dementia caregiving is such an all encompassing task,” said Dr. Linda Nichols from the VA medical center
in Memphis, Tenn., and co-author of a recent study on the program. “The intervention provided time for themselves,
which caregivers never have enough of. REACH VA improved our caregivers’ knowledge to manage care, made them feel
more confident and competent as they formed bonds with the VA staff supporting them, and decreased the inevitable feelings
of isolation and loneliness that come from a selfless, but very sacrificial duty of care.”
VA will roll out REACH VA on a national basis through home-based primary care programs across the country. In
addition, the program will be modified to assist caregivers of Veterans with other diagnoses like spinal cord injury and traumatic
brain injury. “Providing
support to caregivers who sacrifice so much to allow Veterans to remain at home surrounded by loved ones is the right thing
for VA to do,” said Dr. Robert Petzel, VA’s under secretary for health.
An article on the REACH VA program is being published in the Feb. 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Nichols and Dr. Jennifer Martindale-Adams, also from VA’s Memphis facility, are the lead authors and based the VA pilot
on the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute for Nursing Research funded REACH II study. REACH VA is
the first national clinical implementation of a proven behavioral intervention for stressed and burdened dementia caregivers.
Local caregiver support coordinators are available to assist Veterans of all eras and their caregivers in understanding
and applying for VA’s many caregiver benefits. # #
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