The PorchLight Project
Memory Loss, Alzheimer Disease, Dementia
About this trial
This is an interventional supportive care trial for Memory Loss
Eligibility Criteria
Screening:
All screening of volunteers, clients, and caregivers will occur outside of the context of this project and in line with standard practices by LSS-MN Caregiver & Companion Service programs.
The eligibility criteria of volunteers, persons with AD/ADRD, and their caregivers is deliberately lax in order to best reflect LSS-MN "routine practice."
Inclusion Criteria:
1) A Volunteer, client, or proxy involved in the LSS-MN standard Caregiver & Companion Program service program.
Note: De-identified programmatic and survey data on the volunteers, clients, and proxies involved will be shared with the UMN team. While all de-identified data received may be analyzed, data analysis is expected to focus on those who meet the following additional criteria:
- Volunteers who completed LSS-MN required training components.
- Clients who report memory loss and/or a diagnosis for their memory loss, via the LSS-MN surveys.
- Caregivers whose care recipient has memory loss and/or diagnosis for their memory loss based on LSS survey responses.
Note: When discrepancies in reported memory loss between caregivers and clients occur, data from both the caregiver and client will be included and it will be assumed that the client has memory loss. Due to the nature of the data, we expect discrepancies to exist and will document other decisions made during analysis.
Exclusion Criteria:
As data is made available, the UMN research team expects to receive survey data from all the clients, caregivers, and volunteers in LSS-MN Caregiver & Companion Services programming who complete the surveys. Since LSS-MN administers surveys to every client, caregiver, and volunteer involved in their LSS-MN Caregiver & Companion program (as able), de-identified data likely will be obtained from individuals who do not meet the memory-specific criteria. However, as needed, UMN may choose to exclude one or more of the following from analysis. Again, the researcher/research staff best judgement will be used when conducting analyses and will document decisions accordingly:
- Clients who do not have memory loss
- Treatment group volunteers not completing required LSS-MN PorchLight program training
- Caregivers who do not indicate presence of memory loss for their care recipient.
In addition, any client, caregiver, and volunteer can choose to not complete surveys, so we would not have survey data from those individuals, and may continue with routine attempts at surveying at the next data collection time-point. Missing surveys may be considered during analysis.
Please note: Due to the eligibility criteria for volunteers and clients in the LSS-MN program, we do not anticipate any data for those under 18 years of age. Although the real-world, pragmatic design will allow us to include caregivers under the age of 21, it is important to note that LSS-MN's most recent data on caregivers participating in their volunteer programs indicate none under the age of 21
Sites / Locations
- University of Minnesota (with Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota)
Arms of the Study
Arm 1
Arm 2
Experimental
No Intervention
PorchLight
Control