Reduced care burden and improved quality of life in African American family caregivers: Positive impact of personalized assistive technology

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Monica W. Parker ◽  
Crystal Davis ◽  
Kaylin White ◽  
Devon Johnson ◽  
Matt Golden ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Assistive Technology ◽  
Family Caregivers ◽  
User Satisfaction ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Underserved Populations ◽  
Assistive Technologies ◽  
African American Family ◽  
American Family ◽  
Care Burden

BACKGROUND: African Americans living with dementia are considered less likely to seek formal institutionalized elder care and more likely to be managed in the home by family-member caregivers. Assistive technologies (the use of smart visual devices like tablets and phones) can be used effectively to guide memory-impaired individuals with a sequence of pictures showing steps to complete activities of daily living, e.g., bathing, toileting, dressing. Assistive technology so far has not been generally embraced in African American communities. OBJECTIVES: Determine, if African American family caregivers, given the opportunity, would embrace the use of assistive technology and if they would perceive its use beneficial. METHODS: We assessed a group of eight family caregivers’ overall care-burden scores, and their user-satisfaction scores after using assistive technology for three months. RESULTS: We found significant reduction in caregiver burden, positive changes in behavior and emotion scores, and high ratings on user satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: The findings reported here comprise the first systematic study of the use of assistive technology by caregivers in an underserved population. They set the stage for exploring meaningful strategies and variables that will better engage underserved populations to take advantage of assistive technologies available in healthcare.

scholarly journals Impact of Two Psychosocial Interventions on White and African American Family Caregivers of Individuals With Dementia

2003 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 568-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Burgio ◽  
Alan Stevens ◽  
Delois Guy ◽  
David L. Roth ◽  
William E. Haley
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Family Caregivers ◽  
Psychosocial Interventions ◽  
African American Family ◽  
American Family

scholarly journals Advance care treatment plan (ACT-Plan) for African American family caregivers: A pilot study

Dementia ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gloria J Bonner ◽  
Edward Wang ◽  
Diana J Wilkie ◽  
Carol E Ferrans ◽  
Barbara Dancy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Family Caregivers ◽  
Treatment Plan ◽  
African American Family ◽  
American Family ◽  
Care Treatment ◽  
Advance Care

scholarly journals Technology Is out There for the Betterment of Us: African American Family Caregivers and COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 468-468
Author(s):  
Afeez Hazzan ◽  
Carol D'Agostino ◽  
Phyllis Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
African American ◽  
Family Caregivers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Black Family ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
African American Family ◽  
American Family ◽  
People With Dementia

Abstract Unpaid family caregivers are mostly responsible for bearing the costs associated with caring for older adults with dementia. Importantly, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created unforeseen challenges for many family caregivers. Specifically, the restrictions put in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus may be exacerbating the challenges faced by these caregivers as they try to navigate the system. Further, studies have shown that family caregivers who are members of a racial or ethnic minority group such as African-Americans or Hispanics face unique challenges when caring for their loved ones. Additional challenges may include socioeconomic disadvantages, health disparities, and language barriers that make it more difficult to access healthcare and social services. In this study, we examined the perspectives of African-American family caregivers of older adults on the feasibility of utilizing technology as a coping strategy (including for research participation) during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The research question was: What are the perspectives of African-American family caregivers of people with dementia on the feasibility, opportunities, and challenges of technology as a means to engage family caregivers during a pandemic? In-depth one-on-one interviews were conducted with 12 African-American/black family caregivers. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data yielded the following three themes: (1) Acceptance that technology will play a greater role in the world going forward, and family caregivers need to adapt; (2) Opportunities to avoid social isolation while maintaining links with critical community resources; and (3) Challenges due to possible loss of privacy and lack of physical interactions

scholarly journals Biblical Echoes and Communal Home in Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones

2021 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 91-107
Author(s):  
Vicent Cucarella-Ramon
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
African American Family ◽  
The Novel ◽  
American Family ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
National Space ◽  
Familial Bonds ◽  
Communal Healing

Jesmyn Ward’s second novel, Salvage the Bones (2011), offers a literary account of an African American family in dire poverty struggling to weather the horrors of Hurricane Katrina on the outskirts of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi. This article focuses on the novel’s ‘ideology of form’, which is premised on biblical models of narration —grounded on a literary transposition of The Book of Deuteronomy— that serves to portray the victimization of African Americans in mythical tones to evoke the country’s failed covenant between God and his chosen people. It also brings into focus the affective bonds of unity and communal healing relying on the idiosyncratic tenet of home understood as national space— following Winthrop’s foundational ideology. As I will argue, the novel contends that the revamped concept of communal home and familial bonds —echoing Winthrop’s emblem of national belonging— recasts the trope of biblical refuge as a potential tenet to foster selfassertion and to rethink the limits of belonging and acceptance.

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