Promoting preparedness for family caregiving in a specialised palliative home care context - a randomized controlled web-based intervention trial

For family caregivers of patients with life-threatening illness, preparedness for caregiving is crucial for maintaining health and quality of life during care and after the death of the patient.

Interventions delivered by multi-professional teams have shown effective in promoting preparedness but are often costly and logistically challenging.

Possible solutions could be web-based interventions, a potential alternative in healthcare that  has been significantly highlighted during the Covid pandemic.

This project aims to evaluate effects of an evidence-based intervention, narstaende.se, consisting of videos of conversations between clinicians and family caregivers (actors), linked to informational texts and a moderated chat forum. The intervention is pilot tested 2020-2021, exploring feasibility, content and family caregivers’ experiences.

To evaluate intervention effects, a randomised controlled design will be used. 180 family caregivers  will be recruited from specialised home care services and randomized into an intervention group with access to narstaende.se or to a control group with no access to the website.

Data will be collected at four time points; baseline, four and eight weeks later and six months after the patient’s death. Via validated instruments, preparedness for caregiving, health, quality of life and grief will be measured.

The project is expected to generate important knowledge of web-based interventions as a tool in clinical work to support family caregivers.