A Daily Self-Regulation Intervention for Spouses of Persons with Early Stage Dementia
An estimated 5 million Americans have Alzheimers disease, many of whom receive care from a spouse. Spouses are most vulnerable to psychological health problems (e.g., depression) and caregiver burnout because they are often socially isolated and are emotionally connected to their partner. No daily, self-guided interventions, to our knowledge, target self-regulation skills that can be applied to change behaviors deemed important to spousal caregivers and care recipients individual and relational well-being. We define self-regulation as monitoring and controlling ones own behavior, emotions, or thoughts in response to having a partner with dementia. In this talk I will explain how the WOOP (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) intervention can be used to understand the daily self-regulation strategies of spouses of persons with early stage dementia. I will then present preliminary evidence from a pilot experiment suggesting that training spouses to use WOOP has long term benefits for their own well-being as well as their partners.