Building Resilience in Caregiving Families (member only)

Overview:

Family caregiver burnout is real and a challenge for many families who feel underprepared and over-whelmed during their hospice caregiving experience. This 90-minute webinar will include a summary of clinically-relevant results of several recent studies investigating strategies to support family caregivers of hospice patients. It will highlight actionable steps hospice teams can take to promote resilience among patients’ family members alongside efforts to bolster supports necessary to decrease caregiving stress.

Objectives:

• Describe the ways stress and burden impact caregiver and patient health.
• Recognize challenges of implementing evidence-based resilience and coping interventions in hospice.
• Deliver simple, effective strategies for promoting resilience and coping in hospice family caregivers.
• Identify at least three resources for accessing the newest evidence on strategies for promoting caregiver resilience.

*CEs: SW

Presenters:

Jacquelyn J. Benson, PhD, MA, is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Palliative Medicine at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Benson is a family gerontologist whose program of research has a translation focus aimed at enhancing the psychological and social lives of older adults and their caregiving families. Much of her work focuses on testing and implementing psychosocial and behavioral interventions 4 designed to promote healthy lifestyles, positive social connections, and better mental health outcomes for family caregivers of older adults living with cancer, dementia, or other serious illnesses.

Karla Washington, PhD, LCSW, researches interventions intended to promote the cultural, spiritual, and biopsychosocial wellbeing of patients, families and communities facing life-limiting, serious illnesses. Dr. Washington’s research applies digital health solutions in the linked fields of palliative and hospice care. Her current projects include: an intervention to support and educate rural hospice family caregivers controlling pain and various distressing issues in the home setting as well as a cognitive-behavioral intervention randomized clinical trial for caregivers of family members with cancer who are receiving palliative care in the outpatient setting.