The support and care of people with dementia often represent a significant challenge for family caregivers and professional nursing staff. A study has now shown that e-learning programs can help them. They led to caregivers feeling more confident in their role and experiencing less stress. Additionally, they increased empathy and understanding for those affected.
Authors Blanka Klimova and her colleagues emphasize the relevance of e-learning programs, particularly due to the fact that people with dementia are increasingly cared for at home by family members. Around 80 percent of those affected are now cared for by relatives across Europe. However, this often leads to a loss of quality of life for caregivers, and they, like professional caregivers, suffer from increasing physical, mental, and financial burdens. This makes relief and support services all the more important. E-learning offers a possibility here, which is also supported by the WHO.
For their systematic review in the journal BMC Health Services Research The scientists evaluated six studies from the years 2010 to 2018. These studies mostly defined e-learning as internet-based training programs and examined, among other things, changes in the emotional and psychological burden on nurses, their knowledge of dementia, and their social and cognitive skills.
Promising support method especially for family caregivers
In their evaluation, the authors reached the following conclusion: E-learning programs are a promising support method for dealing with people with dementia, especially for family caregivers. Participants from all studies were satisfied with the e-learning programs because they helped them feel less stress and more empathy. Also perceived as positive were the flexibility of the programs, their easy accessibility independent of location and time, the personalized approach of the offerings, the user-friendliness, and the low-threshold access.
However, scientists believe that the practical implementation of e-learning programs requires professional and regular training in technical handling. Limiting their findings, the authors point to the small number of available studies on the topic and recommend further research.
For more information, see here:
https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-019-4641-9
