Caregiver Coping in Minority Communities
The Powerful Tools for Caregivers (PTC) program was developed to provide caregivers with tools to increase their self-care and confidence. This study explores a program to train minority communities in Western New York on the PTC techniques and why the program has been a challenge to implement.
Principal Investigator: Heather Orom, PhD
Co-investigator: Elizabeth Gage-Bouchard, PhD
Funding Agency: Community Health Foundation of Western and Central New York
Period: 12/2011-01/2013
Abstract: This study is a qualitative evaluation of the Powerful Tools for Caregivers (PTC) Cultural Diversity Program, a recent effort to bring an evidence-based program to increase effective coping among caregivers in the African American, Hispanic and Native American communities of Western New York. The goal was to train approximately 20 class leaders from these communities and have each class leader conduct two classes per funding year within the three minority communities. Significant barriers to implementation have been encountered. Although fewer class leaders have been trained than hoped and fewer classes conducted, the funders and project investigators believe that studying the barriers to implementing the intervention will provide important insights into program implementation in minority communities. A qualitative, interview study will be conducted to identify barriers that have made it difficult to implement the PTC program in the targeted communities, including barriers to creating and sustaining relationships with community leaders, identifying and training class leaders, and conducting classes.
