Counseling Program For Caregivers Of People With Alzheimer's Disease: A Case Study

It is widely recognized that living day to day with a family member with Alzheimer's disease is a difficult situation for the relatives. Burden generated by this disease can lead to psychological and physical exhaustion for the caregiver, called burnout. Several health studies have shown that caregivers are a population at risk, particularly in terms of depressive symptoms (Covinsky et al., 2003), psychological distress (Pinquart and Sörensen, 2003) or health problems (Schulz et al., 1997). They also present a higher risk of mortality than noncaregivers (Schulz and Beach, 1999). Given these results, we understand the major interest of establishing support program to offer therapeutic monitoring for people caring for a relative with dementia.
We present Mrs C.G’s case study, who followed the counselling program developed by Adam et al. (2009). This program aims to meet the specific demands of the caregiver by providing informative elements about the disease, relevant advice based on cognitive functioning through the specific profile of the patient and real daily challenges experienced by the caregiver. The “stress management approach” proposed by Zarit et al. (1987) induces the use of coping strategies focused on problem solving.
The comparison between pre and post-intervention brings us positive elements, particularly in enhancement of the caregiver’s quality of life, of his sense of competence and efficiency in managing the disease on a daily basis. About burnout, which was the primary focus this intervention, we find that emotional exhaustion tends to decrease during the counselling sessions. A particularly important finding relates to family changes made throughout the therapy, questioning the organization of family dynamics.
These positive results show the importance of developing support programs for caregivers adapted to their needs. Moreover, training therapists for this purpose seems essential because it requires a comprehensive and holistic clinical approach, given the neuropsychological, cognitive behavioural and systemic components involved.