NCT03244098

In-Home Adjustment of New Spinal Cord Injury Caregivers

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 96 (actual)
• Sponsor: Virginia Commonwealth University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 89 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

To improve spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation through stronger informal caregiving, the proposed study will modify and evaluate a telehealth Transition Assistance Program (TAP) for informal caregivers of individuals with SCI during the transition from hospital to home. The TAP was previously developed for stroke caregivers and has been found to decrease caregiver strain and depression. In the proposed study, the TAP will be modified for SCI and implemented at a state-of-the-art SCI rehabilitation facility with a very high volume of SCI treatment and with telehealth technology already in place through which to test the intervention.

Detailed description

SCI Caregivers will be randomly assigned to either the TAP group or to a control receiving the standard care provided by the rehabilitation facility. The TAP begins before discharge and extends across six weeks. It includes three components to improve caregiver mental health and informal care: (1) skill development, (2) education, and (3) supportive problem solving. TAP caregivers will receive an SCI caregiving guidebook, a 1-hour intervention session by an SCI clinician before hospital discharge, and four 1-hour telehealth clinic-to-home visits at 1, 2, 4, and 6 weeks after discharge by the same clinician. Data will be collected from caregivers and individuals with SCI at baseline immediately before discharge and at 2 and 4 months after discharge.

Conditions

• Spinal Cord Injuries

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Transition Assistance Program	TAP caregivers will receive an SCI caregiving guidebook, a 1-hour intervention session by an SCI clinician before hospital discharge, and four 1-hour telehealth clinic-to-home visits at 1, 2, 4, and 6 weeks after discharge by the same clinician

Timeline

• Start date: 2018-02-09
• Primary completion: 2022-05-01
• Completion: 2022-05-01
• First posted: 2017-08-09
• Last updated: 2022-05-03

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States