Adapting START for the black minority community
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Adapting the START (Strategies for Relatives) programme for carers of black ethnicity
IRAS ID
235260
Contact name
Gill Livingston
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 22 days
Research summary
Family carers of people with dementia experience higher levels of psychological burden than carers of people with other chronic illnesses, with up to 40% showing clinical levels of depression and anxiety. There are no culturally tailored interventions for family carers of black ethnicity, despite dementia being more common and often occurring at a younger age among black elders, who also tend to delay help-seeking for dementia until crisis point or they can no longer cope. By the time families contact services, relatives living with dementia may have higher care needs and family carers have already been coping with severe behavioural changes. START (STrAtegies for RelaTives) is an effective eight-session programme that helps carers cope better with caring for a relative with dementia and manage their own symptoms of depression and anxiety. It has, however, not been adapted or tested with different ethnicities and cultures. A disproportionate number of BME participants recruited in the initial trial tended to drop out. This may be because it does not address their needs appropriately. We aim to interview (in group or individually) Black family carers of people with dementia about START and their needs and preferences of care support and coping strategies. We will use this information to decide whether START needs to be adapted to better suit their needs. If there is a need to reframe START to make it more accessible to a black audience, we will do so in consultation with black family carers. This project will help improve support for black carers of people with dementia and provide a framework to enable START to be extended to other minority ethnic groups. In a future project, we will trial the modified START with black family carers of people with dementia within community and NHS environments for acceptability.
REC name
London - Surrey Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/0336
Date of REC Opinion
8 Mar 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion