Self-help support: The Alzheimer's telephone from the user's perspective

Telephone counseling is an important form of support for informal carers of persons with dementia. The quality and benefit of this kind of service have rarely been evaluated in Germany.

We developed a survey to assess the quality of telephone counseling. We conducted an online survey among 201 users of the telephone hotline "Alzheimer-Telefon" (Alzheimer's telephone service) provided by the German Alzheimer's Association after the consultation. The aim of the study was to determine whether this form of telephone support meets certain quality criteria and the callers' needs.

Of the 201 participants, 80% were female. The mean age of the callers was 51 years. 74% of cases were one-off consultations; 26% of the callers sought advice twice or more often. The most common reasons for calling included behavioral changes (45%) and finding a nursing home (41%). Other family members were significantly (p=0.036) more likely to seek local respite options. Based on the 201 online questionnaires evaluated, most callers were highly satisfied with the counseling services provided by the Alzheimer's telephone service. Those seeking advice were particularly satisfied with the appreciative and empathetic communication style of the advisors and their professional competence. This also applies to the accessibility of the telephone. More than three quarters were fully satisfied with the information they received. Almost half of the callers were sure that the advice would help to solve their issue. 14% of people seeking advice were uncertain about how to implement the suggested solutions.A further survey would be worthwhile to determine to what extent the topics of the consultation can be implemented. The feedback from relatives who use the Alzheimer's telephone repeatedly could be used for this purpose - the repetition rate is currently 25% and the trend is rising. Results could be interesting for successful counseling and for the development of further support services.

The telephone hotline is a useful component of dementia care in Germany and an important contribution to the National Dementia Strategy.