Studies to Focus on Caregivers of Alzheimer’s, Brain Injury
Grants totaling $3 million will support Indiana University and the Regenstrief Institute in Indianapolis studies on helping families caring for those with Alzheimer’s-related dementia or traumatic brain injury. The funding from the National Institute on Aging will cover work focusing on medical decision making among caregivers and the United States Department of Defense-funded research will examine a collaborative care program for veterans and their caregivers.
Nicole Fowler, who is associated with IU School of Medicine, the IU Center for Aging Research, Regenstrief Institute and IU Center for Health Innovation and Implementation Science, was awarded the grants. She says "family caregivers are often the ones making tough decisions and facilitating medical care for their loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease. They struggle with decisions about care, especially those that they are not sure will improve their loved ones’ quality of life and may be burdensome. For example, imagine you are a women with Alzheimer’s disease being taken out of your familiar surroundings to get a mammogram and you don’t really know or understand what is going on, what is being done to your body; then imagine how difficult it can be for the caregiver to make the decision to take their confused family member to the imaging facility and keep them calm and comfortable."
As for the vet family-focused study, Fowler says "we hope to develop evidence-based information on how to improve VA clinicians’ ability to provide high quality primary care to veterans with Alzheimer’s disease and traumatic brain injury by tailoring medical care to match the specific needs of veterans and their caregivers."
You can connect to more details on both studies by clicking here.