Although Special Units (SUs) for the care of Alzheimer's (AD) patients have been proposed as a key solution for these difficult to manage patients, little attention has been given to families of institutionalized AD patients in the literature. In addition to research to evaluate the effects of the SU approach, there is need for clinical nursing research to develop and test interventions for problems arising in the care of the AD patient. Designing and testing nursing interventions that assist families in coping with feelings and stress often resulting from role changes that accompany the institutionalization of their AD relatives is a specific need. A further need is to develop and test interventions that include family members as partners with nurses in providing care for AD patients. This proposal represents the third part (Phase III) of a program of research to evaluate the SU approach to the care of institutionalized AD patients. The purpose of this Phase III non-equivalent groups, repeated measures, quasi-experiment is to test the effects of a specific nursing intervention (Family Involvement in Care [FIC]) on family members, staff, and AD patients in six settings. The proposal builds on the systematic evaluation of the SU approach by comparing the effects of the FIC in three settings with the effects of the SU alone in three comparison settings. Between group differences on the dependent variables over time and at separate time points, the magnitude of these effects, and within-group changes after the treatment will be investigated.
