The SOS Caregivers Project brought together community (AMI Quebec ), clinical (St. Mary’s Hospital Center (SMHC)) and research (St Mary’s Research Center) partners to develop and begin to test an intervention for family caregivers of elderly hospitalized patients who are expected to return home upon discharge.

The needs assessment phase of this work revealed that caregivers unmet needs mainly pertained to medical information related to the patient condition, to support for the caregiver when the patient returns home, and to reassurance about the quality of patient care. Based on these results, the team designed an intervention to deliver information and support to caregivers of older hospitalised patients who will be returning home. In its current form, the intervention offers caregivers up to 5 individual sessions delivered by a trained lay person with counseling experience, who provides emotional support for caregivers in their caregiving role and for their own needs as well as information on community resources.

Nursing staff from the participating two units at SMHC were consulted during the intervention design phase. Although nurses recognized that this intervention can help with successful transitions from hospital to home, it was important to them that the intervention did not interfere with other clinical activities. The intervention therefore has been designed to complement existing discharge planning and to be delivered without requiring additional time or resources from staff.

Team members will be presenting more information on the outcomes of this new intervention over the following months and exploring possibilities to roll the intervention out to other sites in the IUHSSC.

For more information, contact Marcela Hidalgo at 514-345-3511, ext. 3325 or at marcela.hidalgo@ssss.gouv.qc.ca

Funding for this project provided by l'Appui Montreal.