Alzheimer’s caregivers remain healthy with counselling

Counselling and support for people caring for a spouse with Alzheimer’s disease helps to preserve their own health, according to a new US study.

The person they are caring for is also able to stay out of a nursing home and in their own home much longer while in the company of their healthier spousal caregiver.

Caregivers in the study who received an intervention developed at New York University Medical Center by Dr Mary S Mittelman and her colleagues, reported less of a decline in their physical health than those receiving usual care.

“Preserving the health of spouse caregivers through counselling and support also benefits the person with Alzheimer’s disease, as caregivers who are in poor health are more likely to have difficulty providing good care,” said Dr Mittelman, research professor in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine.

The study is published in the September issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

In the new study, the researchers gauged caregivers’ self-reported health, an important predictor of physical illness, with questions that have been used widely in national surveys by the Center’s for Disease Control and Prevention, and internationally by the World Health Organisation.

The intervention had a beneficial effect on self-rated health, which began within four months of enrolment, and lasted more than a year, according to the study.

“Individualized counselling programs that improve social support for caregivers can have many indirect benefits, including sustaining their physical health,” said Dr Mittelman.