Providing Caregivers with Emotional and Self-Management Support
How Innovative Digital Programs are Helping Caregivers Get Healthier Outcomes
Caregivers are a vital element to our society, and they are overwhelmed; many caregivers are experiencing something known as caregiver burnout. According to the Cleveland Clinic, this is a term that refers to the feelings of mental and physical exhaustion driven by the arduous and often overwhelming duties of a caregiver. The life of any caregiver comes with serious difficulties; it can be hard to find enough time for yourself when you spend so much time focused on somebody else. According to the National Alliance for Caregiving & AARP, the majority of family caregivers spend approximately 24.4 hours per week providing care; 25% of family caregivers spend 41 hours or more per week providing care. All this time creates a significant financial burden atop physical and mental exhaustion. Caregivers need our help.
At Adhera Health, it is our goal to empower people who are managing chronic diseases and that especially means supporting caregivers; we want to give individuals tools that they can use to reduce the stress that comes with the challenging role of being a caregiver. As our understanding of health continues to evolve alongside our technology, it’s our job to use the new tools we have available to continue adapting and solving our society’s health problems. Through our research, we have found that digital health solutions are becoming more effective and cost-efficient to manage an individual’s mental health. Recent digital health solutions are showing promising advantages as self-management support tools for improving wellbeing and behaviors related to treatments. We have also found that the emotional distress of caregivers (i.e., parents) of children with long-term conditions affects their child’s health behaviors, including treatment adherence.
Back in September, we published a study conducted for our caregiver support program, Adhera Caring, which focuses on family caregivers of patients. This study centered around the caregivers of patients receiving growth hormone treatment (GHt) and it aimed to examine the usability of a mobile digital health solution and the feasibility of a digital health intervention designed to promote the emotional and mental wellbeing of caregivers of children undergoing GHt.
"The results of the Adhera® Caring study show that improving lifestyle and mental health coping skills for caregivers of children with long-term conditions using digital health tools can have a direct impact on a caregiver and their child's quality of life,” said Antonio de Arriba, MD, Ph.D., a pediatric endocrinologist at the University Hospital of Miguel Servet. By improving the mental health of caregivers and providing them with resources and education, we can improve patient health outcomes. By focusing on family caregivers, we are not only helping them, even though they do need our help; by focusing on caregivers, we are helping patients.
The Adhera Caring program is built on top of the Adhera® Precision Digital Companion™ Platform that includes two major components: adaptive self-management content powered by a health recommender system. The personalized subject matter is delivered via a mobile app and includes psycho-educational content, cognitive behavioral therapy activities for mental wellbeing, and personalized motivational messages. The health recommender system is built using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to select and personalize motivational messages making them more relevant and effective.
Caregiver emotional distress has been found to be a driver of poor adherence and self-management skills in pediatrics, growth disorders, and type 1 diabetes. This relationship is well established. By making use of digital health solutions, we can help both patients and caregivers, so they may better navigate the blind spots that are difficult to find for individuals suffering from chronic diseases. Caregivers work so hard for their patients. The advantages that digital health solutions offer us are clear – it is time we provide caregivers with more advanced tools so that they can do their job more effectively and efficiently. By improving the mental health of family caregivers and providing them with resources and education, we improve patient treatment adherence, leading to better health outcomes. We understand the strength of family caregivers – it is our duty to empower them.