The Psychosocial Core conducts a comprehensive assessment of the primary caregivers of all subjects participating in the Clinical Core, and family members of those with MCI and AD, follows them longitudinally and provides them with counseling on request. The routine structured multifaceted assessment is in two parts: the first part includes measures of depression, anxiety, social network and support and quality of life; the second part measures family conflict, behavior problems and caregiver reaction, caregiver appraisal, formal and informal support utilization and other specific characteristics related to caregiving. Family members of patients with AD complete the entire assessment. Subjects with MCI, their study partners and cognitively normal subjects who are not caregivers complete only the first part of this assessment. At the conclusion of every diagnostic evaluation of the Clinical Core, counselors of the Psychosocial Core conduct conferences with the subject, primary caregiver (if appropriate) and other family members. The counseling staff is available to respond to requests for help and information, are a user-friendly resource and a link between center subjects and other center staff. They make regular follow-up telephone calls to all participants in the Psychosocial Core. Their activities facilitate recruitment of new subjects, retention of current subjects and participation of subjects in autopsy tracking and in research studies. The Psychosocial Core data is a resource for the research of the NYU Psychosocial Research Program, and for other collaborating investigators in the field. The Psychosocial Core includes a comprehensive genetic counseling and education program, which will serve the goals of the NIA-Genetics Initiative and ADCC-affiliated researchers in genetics and proteomics and provide data to extend our evaluations of psychosocial interventions to include development of effective counseling and support for concerned subjects and family members about genetic risk for AD. The large database and subject pool, to which we will continue to add new subjects and longitudinal information, will be a valuable research resource in its own right and foster the formulation of new research to improve caregiver and patient well-being.
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