A new study is looking at the benefits of a podcast for caregivers of people living with dementia. The podcast is called Dementia Untangled. And this virtual study aims to see if it can be used to help decrease anger, depression and loneliness.
Heather Mulder with the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute says they developed the podcast during the COVID-19 pandemic, when in-person education opportunities were limited.
"We've gotten incredible feedback from listeners about how the podcast and the different topics that we cover have helped them in their caregiving role. And so this is an effort to try to quantify that," Mulder said.
A pretty unique study
Mulder says examining this non-medical intervention is “pretty unique.”
"We weren't able to find a lot of research kind of across the spectrum of podcasts about if people are able to make behavioral changes. … So we're excited to see how this turns out in hopes that this will become an accessible non-medical intervention for caregivers of people with dementia," Mulder said.
Especially given the high demands placed on these caregivers — emotionally, physically and financially. After completing pre-surveys, participating caregivers are asked to listen to eight episodes of Dementia Untangled over the course of two months and report back.
"We're looking for family caregivers who are providing care and feeling some stress related to that and that stress can be subjective. Feeling stress related to that caregiving role and then have access to a streaming service," Mulder said.
The end goal
Mulder says the goal is to help caregivers better respond to their loved one, while also being able to manage their own emotions as the disease progresses.
"We know that caregivers for persons with a neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer's or other dementias, they experience higher demands on their time and resources. They experience higher rates of stress and burden than caregivers of other diseases. And we also know if the caregiver is stressed out, that leads to a worse outcome for the person who's living with dementia," Mulder said.
Mulder says this non-medical intervention could be a game-changer for for caregivers, allowing them to kind of select subjects that are relevant to them in the moment and allowing them to log in when is convenient for them.
"Because it allows caregivers to access education when is convenient for them," Mulder said.
More about Dementia Untangled or the PodCaring Study
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