The savvy caregiver program: developing and testing a transportable dementia family caregiver training program

This article reports on the development and field testing of the Savvy Caregiver Program, the transformation of a successful, academic-based caregiver psychoeducational program into a self-contained program that can be adopted in other locations.

Program development began with a prototype of a 12-hr course with the aims of introducing family caregivers to the caregiving role, providing them with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to carry out that role, and alerting them to self-care issues. Results from initial field trials dictated a substantial revision of the workshop materials. The next version was field tested in multiple sites in southern rural Minnesota, Colorado, and Alaska. In this expanded testing, participants evaluated the program, and cross-group comparisons were conducted by use of well-established caregiver well-being scales.

Virtually all respondents reported increased skill, knowledge, and confidence, and all would recommend the program to others. A preintervention versus postintervention analysis indicates that caregivers' reaction to the overall behavior of the persons for whom they provide care (i.e., "total reaction"), their self-reported burden, and their beliefs about caregiving (emotional enmeshment) changed significantly in directions indicating better caregiver well-being.

Results suggest that it is feasible to translate a research-based caregiver intervention into a packaged program that can be adopted in other settings without the direct involvement of the program initiators.