Effet d'un programme d'éducation au loisir adapté comme mesure de soutien à l'implication des aidants familiaux auprès de personnes atteintes de la démence de type Alzheimer

Abstract

Leisure is one way to maintain satisfactory relationships between caregivers and persons with dementia. Adapted leisure education is therefore a promising approach to assist the family in discovering new ways to share good times with their loved one. Such an approach puts caregiver support in a new positive perspective, focusing on the quality of the relationship rather than the burden of caregiving. Mixed methods were used to develop and evaluate a leisure education program to support caregivers over two phases. The first phase aimed to develop and test the program and included need assessments, the program content development and a pilot study. The second phase concerned the evaluation of the program and incorporated an implementation evaluation, an experimental and analysis of the determining factors. The quantitative results showed few impacts of the program on caregivers well-being, adapted leisure self-efficacy and quality of caregivers and care-receivers relationship. However, the qualitative analysis revealed that the intervention had positive impacts for the caregivers, care receivers and other family members. The analysis of the determining factors shed light on the program's conditions for success. This study introduces caregiver support in a new, positive perspective by focusing on the positive aspects of caregiving rather than the burden.