DemiCare+ aims at empowering informal caregivers in ways that allows them to remain in their care role without developing negative health consequences.
Scientific evidence shows that depression in ICGD can be prevented by providing support in the four areas of:
1. physical care demands of PWD,
2. behavioural problems of PWD,
3. caregiving competency, and
4. loss and grief of caregivers.
In the last decades the evidence supporting digital interventions for preventing depression in ICGD has exponentially increased. It has also been documented that depressive symptoms measured by self-report are the best short-term predictors of major depressive episodes.
The assessment of risk factors and protective factors will be based on reactive and non-reactive methods, also exploiting the potential of predicting early signs of depression based on data which may be digitally tracked, such as sleep duration and number of social connections.
The existing personalized prevention approach will be extended by connecting to local caring communities and integrating relevant local care services to better support physical care demands. Micro interventions based on Positive Psychology (PP) and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) will be applied to enhance caregiver’s resilience and wellbeing.
Towards this, risk factors, such as reduction of negative chain reactions (i.e., feelings of loss and grief), as well as protective factors, such as the establishment of self-efficacy (i.e., care competency) will be addressed.
By implementing DemiCare+ into the existing health and care systems in Austria, the Netherlands and Romania the project will:
· improve the detection of depression symptoms of ICGD based on self-reported symptoms and by regularly monitoring the digital biomarkers of ICGD; and
· strengthen the resilience of ICGD, reduce the initial symptoms and avoid the development of depression among ICGD by providing timely and effective micro-interventions through an app.
