Promoting Adaptation to Caregiving Challenges: A Qualitative Study of Dementia Caregiving Specialists

Limited evidence describes how practicing dementia caregiving specialists (DCS) facilitate caregiver mastery of dementia-related challenges. This qualitative study was designed to characterize perceptions of a national sample of DCS about the caregiver support they provide and strategies they use to promote caregivers' adaptation to dementia caregiving challenges. Qualitative analysis of interviews with 27 DCS from 11 states indicates the scope of DCS practice ranged from one-to-one and group-based consultation to community education and advocacy. DCS reported providing care at inflection points such as care transitions. DCS supportive strategies to facilitate caregiver adaptation were classified into six themes, such as identifying immediate caregiving challenges, experimenting with adaptive solutions, and sustaining new solutions over time. Findings provide a framework to develop DCS training resources, design intervention models, and examine the impact of DCS support on patient and caregiver outcomes, such as outcomes during care transitions.