Volunteering Program for Chinese Dementia Caregivers

Although many older Chinese Americans are expected to need intensive care because of cognitive impairment, a large gap exists in development of culturally sensitive interventions to reduce stress among caregivers in Chinese American communities. This research project will develop and pilot test a culturally sensitive intervention, the peer mentoring program (PMP), which is informed by the sociocultural stress and coping model. This project will generate preliminary data for a larger randomized controlled trial for efficacy or effectiveness testing of PMP, which is an innovative intervention to support dementia among Chinese Americans, by empowering the existing human resources of experiential caregivers in the same ethnic community.