Caring for a friend or relative with Alzheimer's Disease can be a full time job. Many people care for a relative at home as they gradually develop more severe symptoms of dementia. While some communities have resources to support these caregivers, other do not. Even if support is available, it may be hard for caregivers to get out of the house and get to the the support agency. Alzheimer's Caregiver Support Online uses the Internet and the telephone to bring support resources to people who are caring for someone with Alzheimer's Disease.
Alzheimer's Caregiver Support Online (AlzOnline) was developed as a resource for Alzheimer's caregivers in the state of Florida, but most of the services are now available for caregivers throughout the world. It is not a commercial site. It is actually a project of the Center for Research on Telehealth and Healthcare Communications at the University of Florida, with additional support from the State of Florida Department of Elder Affairs.
So what? The involvement of these agencies means that the information at this site is totally reliable. It also means that cutting-edge technologies will be employed as Robert Glueckauf, Ph.D. and his colleagues at the Center investigate different ways to use technology to solve health problems.
AlzOnline developed a set of interactive classes for Florida caregivers to take. These are actual scheduled classes that are are held at certain times. Participants are required to call a toll-free number to discuss their caregiving situation with the staff at the Center. They then install an application that allows Online interaction, and they log on at the scheduled time for each class. The researchers at the University of Florida are studying these classes to see how well they work. The initial results are encouraging, but the researchers are surprised at how few caregivers have actually participated in the classes.
Caregivers from all over the world have found AlzOnline to be helpful. Several aspects of the interactive classes may be responsible for the limited participation in that particular aspect of the project. Limiting the classes to participants within a single state undoubtedly limited participation. The classes are now open to all. Requiring people to make a telephone call before signing-up for classes probably also discouraged some people. The web is usually a self-contained resource, and interrupting an Internet session to make a phone call is not a natural step for most people. Most of us don't schedule our Internet time. The idea of scheduling a time every week to attend an Online class probably did not come naturally for most people.
The clinicians and researchers at AlzOnline are moving ahead and learning from the past. They plan to re-package much of the content in their caregiver classes in a format that allows people to use a VCR and the telephone to participate. They will also continue to study the effectiveness of these different modalities of delivering help to caregivers.
If you are caring for someone with Alzheimer's Syndrome, or if you know someone who is, AlzOnline is one of the best places to get support and assistance.
Last updated 4/23/06
