Building Resilience in Caregivers of Trauma Survivors

The problem: 40 million adults in the United States provide care to adults over the age of 18 due to a disability or illness and more than half are unpaid or “informal” caregivers. The “costs” of caregiving include high rates for anxiety and depression as well as compromised physical health, relationship strain and financial stress.

When caregiver stress or burden is high, care for the patient is compromised.

Eligible participants have loved ones who have recently been admitted to the ICU at Memorial Hermann Hospital due to a traumatic injury.

This study will test three different behavioral interventions to be delivered soon after that injury with an overall goal to help manage some of the stress and concern associated with having a loved one traumatically injured. As a participant, you would be assigned to only one of these interventions. All three interventions make use of an ICU diary. One also includes meeting with a study staff member for 40 minutes once a week for four weeks. The study has been designed to minimize how much time is needed from you. More information can be found in the “Study Information” tab. This is a federally funded Department of Defense registered clinical trial.

We will examine which intervention is most successful at reducing depression, anxiety and changes in physical health 6 months after a loved one has suffered a traumatic injury.

You will be reimbursed for your participation.

This study is approved by the UTHealth Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects (HSC-MS-19-0073).

Feel free to contact us for more information and many thanks for your interest!

The Caregiver Resilience and Support Team

 *If you are looking for resources available to you and/or your family you can find that list in the “Community Resources” tab.