Research has found that approximately 80 percent of the care received by elderly people living at home is provided by family members. Although assistance provided by informal supports can be important in sustaining the functionally disabled elderly at home, caregiving can have important negative effects on the informal providers. To examine the…

Describes the Elderly Support Project designed to teach families better home care of the mentally and physically impaired elderly. Findings supported the procedures as valuable for promoting continuing home care, better mental status, and improved behavior of elderly clients by offering families alternative positive responses. (Author/JAC)

Assessed efficacy of home-based program of cognitive stimulation for functional status of patients with Alzheimer's disease and their caregivers. Compared treated caregiver/patient dyads with nontreated dyads. Results suggest that treated patients exhibited maintenance levels of cognitive and behavioral functioning and improved emotionally while…

Although the effectiveness of home-based, behaviorally-oriented treatment programs with the elderly and their families has been well documented, assessment of caregivers' attitudes toward those programs remains rare. To assess the relationship between outcome measures and client and principal caregiver characteristics, 21 client-caregiver dyads,…