A ‘culturally tailored iSupport model’ for carers of people with dementia

Language barriers, unfamiliarity with care services and lack of social capitals significantly reduce the opportunities for carers from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities to develop dementia care knowledge and participate in dementia care policy and service development. The World Health Organization (WHO) iSupport is a comprehensive psychoeducation resource for carers of people with dementia (PWD). It has been culturally adapted and incorporated with facilitator-enabled access to services and carer support groups (or an ‘iSupport model’) and trialled in Chinese carers in Australia and Greater China. The model effectively reduced stress and improved the QoL of carers. However, the carer sample from Australia in the trial is relatively small and the effectiveness of the model needs to be further tested in Australian aged care.
Our previous studies and collaborations with WHO have enabled us to develop eight iSupport versions: Mandarin, Cantonese, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Vietnamese, Bahasa Indonesia and English. We now propose a 2-phase study to develop a ‘Culturally sensitive iSupport’ model’ and evaluate its impact on carers, PWD, aged care organisations and systems. In phase 1, we will co-design the ‘Culturally sensitive iSupport model’ and strategies to implement the model with stakeholders. In phase 2, we will embed the model into selected ethno-specific and mainstream aged care organisations and conduct a 12-month hybrid randomised controlled trial to evaluate the model. We will measure QoL and health outcomes for carers and PWD, quality of care, adherence to the model, perform an economic analysis, and explore the experiences of carers and staff in the evaluation.
Co-creating a ‘Culturally sensitive iSupport model’ with CALD communities will improve health and QoL for both carers and PWD, reduce preventable hospital admissions of PWD and improve aged care organisations’ capacity to care for PWD and their carers from CALD communities.