PAACC: Mindfulness and Caregiving

In the realm of dementia care, interventions that balance skill-building in dementia care and nurturing acceptance and compassion towards oneself and the person with dementia (PwD) are sparse. Addressing this, we've crafted a novel, multicomponent, mindfulness-based caregiver intervention, the Practice of Acceptance, Awareness, and Compassion in Caregiving (PAACC).

Spanning over four sessions, PAACC has been meticulously designed to alleviate caregiver burden associated with caring for family members diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, related dementias (AD/ADRD), and TBI-related AD.

We're employing a prospective, randomized trial design to gauge the effectiveness of PAACC by contrasting it with the well-established, evidence-based REACH-VA intervention.

By integrating the principles of mindfulness, our study hopes to bring fresh perspectives and effective solutions to the challenging yet rewarding journey of dementia caregiving.

This study is in partnership with colleagues at the Salem Veterans Affairs, Mamta Sapra, MD; Lauren Hagemann, PhD, and Katherine Luci, PhD.