Overview
This study aims to assess the efficacy of telephone-coached graphic narrative bibliotherapy in improving dementia caregiver depressive symptoms compared with the booklet group.
Description
This is a two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial using a repeated-measures design to examine the effects of telephone-coached graphic narrative bibliotherapy on 128 (64 per group) informal caregivers of people with dementia. Participants in the intervention group will receive eight weekly telephone-coached graphic narrative bibliotherapy sessions, plus two face-to-face booster sessions and two follow-up sessions. The control group will receive an education booklet and check-in calls. Caregiver depressive symptoms, stress and anxiety, caregiving appraisal, care-recipient neuropsychiatric symptoms, and quality of life will be measured to test the intervention's effects immediately after completion and at a 6-month follow-up.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria:
- provide unpaid care to a person diagnosed with early to moderate stage dementia;
- provide at least 14 hours of care a week for at least 3 months
- aged 18 years or above
- able to read
- have depressive symptoms
- use a message application
Exclusion Criteria:
- with an unstable physical or mental condition
- with cognitive impairment
- receiving medical, psychological, or psychiatric treatment for depression
- have been included in another interventional study