Demographics have brought the care of older adults to the status of a major national concern. An estimated 9.5 million Americans have difficulty performing basic life activities because of mental or physical health conditions, and this number is expected to increase dramatically in the next decade. Many families are electing to care for their loved ones at home; however, most of these families do not have the finances or the time for classes or professional outpatient care. To address this need, American Research Corporation of Virginia proposes the ongoing development of Training for Lay Caregivers (TLC), an interactive multimedia (IM) training program targeted for both the family and volunteer caregivers. IM is the integration of audio, video, and animation with computer-based information retrieval techniques to enable users to view material in a intuitive, non-linear fashion. The Phase I program yielded a completely self-contained, proof-of-concept presentation that focused on caregiving for the most crucial activities of daily living, such as bathing, and positioning. Phase II specific aims include development of more comprehensive instructional content, integration of the content with IM presentation technology, and evaluation of program efficiency with regard to changes in knowledge, self-efficacy, outcomes and behavior.
The primary commercial market for the proposed program is home health providers who, in turn, would lease presentation-dedicated laptop computers to clients. Clients would engage the program in their homes at their convenience or as the need arose until the desired skills were mastered. A secondary commercial market is comprised of home health service providers and nonprofit volunteer organizations, such as the American Red Cross, who wish to utilize TLC for staff development.
