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Symposium

Interdisciplinary

Underrepresented Family Caregivers: Building Trust to Strengthen Recruitment and Retention

Thursday, November 14, 2024
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PST
Location: Room 205
CE: 1.5

The definition of “family caregiver” typically excludes many groups, including those from different genders, racial/ethnic identities, and caregiver age categories. Relationship building, establishing trust with community partners, and interdisciplinary collaborations are essential for the successful recruitment, engagement, and retention of underrepresented family caregivers in research. Moreover, inclusive communication is critical to building trust and strengthening participant engagement. Each individual presentation of the symposium will focus on effective strategies to engage underrepresented family caregivers from a diverse range of age, gender, and racial/ethnic populations. Our first speaker (G. Gimm) will present findings on the effect of a 9-week stress management intervention on mean burden scores for 97 family caregivers, including 16 male caregivers. Our second speaker (K. Moss) will describe effective recruitment and retention strategies for feasibility and acceptability testing of a co-created virtual peer support intervention (Pair 2 Care), which was designed for and with Black/African American dementia family caregivers. Our third speaker (A. Kalvesmaki) will describe what is known about caregiving across the lifespan, including youth caregivers who are less than 18 years, and identify barriers to service use, as well as effective strategies to build trust in family caregiving communities. Our fourth speaker (M. Kavanaugh) will share key findings on the effective engagement of multidisciplinary healthcare providers who received training to deliver the YCare program, a hands-on caregiving skills session empowering youth caregivers. Our discussant (B. Fields) will then summarize cross-cutting themes and share practical and policy implications for researchers and underrepresented family caregivers across the lifespan.

Learning Objectives:

  • Attendees will be able to identify underrepresented family caregiver populations that are critical for inclusion in research studies, policy, and practice: including gender, race and ethnicity, and age categories.
  • Attendees will be able to describe effective strategies to recruit and retain participants from underrepresented genders, racial and ethnic groups, and age categories to advance scientific knowledge, inform policy, and strengthen the fortitude of family caregivers.

Presentations:

  • 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PST
    The Mason CARES Study: Effects of a Stress Management Intervention on Male Family Caregiver Burden Scores

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Gilbert Gimm, PhD (he/him/his) – George Mason University

  • 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PST
    Recruitment and Retention Strategies for Black American Dementia Caregiver Peer Support

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Karen O. Moss, PhD, RN, CNL, FNAP (she/her/hers) – The Ohio State University

  • 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PST
    Young Caregivers: Engaging Families and Building Trust in Research for Caregivers of All Ages

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Andrea F. Kalvesmaki, PhD (she/her/hers) – VA Salt Lake City Health Care System

  • 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PST
    Engaging Youth and Health Care Professionals: Developing the YCare Program for Young Carers

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Melinda S. Kavanaugh, PhD, LCSW – University of Wisconsin Milwaukee