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Optimizing Dementia Care in Veterans with Dementia is a randomized, controlled, pilot study examining outcomes for Veterans and their caregivers at 6- and 12-months for two telephone-based interventions: a) Benjamin Rose Institute’s (BRI) Care Consultation (CC), and b) CC + Counseling (CC+C). Counseling modules are integrated into the existing BRI CC framework using guided mindfulness-based skill-building exercises on various content domains (e.g., grief, identity, intimacy, stress management). Sixty-four caregivers and 47 Veterans (M = 74.3 years, MOCA Score M = 15.5) have been randomized in this ongoing pilot study. Caregivers are 91% female, 32% Black/African American, and 72% spouses. Preliminary implementation and 6-month outcome data is discussed (e.g., reaction to behavioral distress, mindfulness, depression, quality of life) using within-group paired samples t-tests for the 32 dyads randomized to CC+C. Lessons learned include strategies for adapting mindfulness-based approaches over the telephone to enhance access for Veterans and caregivers across geographic regions.

Current and prior relationship quality can have significant impacts on the mental and physical health of individuals with dementia (IWD) and their spousal caregivers (CGs). Yet, marital satisfaction is not often assessed. This poster examines use of the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), a widely-researched marriage counseling tool, for contextualizing interpersonal factors beyond established measures of quality-of-life (QoL), burden, and depression. Community-dwelling spousal CGs (n = 49) and Veterans with dementia (n = 37) completed self-report measures including dyadic relationship satisfaction/distress, mutuality, QoL, depression, burden, and the IWD’s cognitive status. Descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, and regressions were performed. Scores on the DAS significantly correlated with CG QoL (.567, p < .001), CG depression (-.525, p < .001), CG burden (-.428, p = .002), IWD’s cognitive status (.355, p = .034), and IWD social engagement (-.424, p = .011). IWD-reported DAS scores were positively correlated with IWD QoL (.381, p = .024), CG QoL (.340, p = .043), and IWD subjective health (.360, p =.031). Regression analysis showed CG DAS (b = .188, β = .464, p = .002) and IWD social engagement (b = -2.806, β = -.37, p = .012) are significantly predictive of CG QoL; F(2, 32) = 15.865, p < .001; R2 = .495. Findings suggest that the DAS provides important relationship quality insights and may improve QoL needs assessments for caregiving support and respite services, including CG willingness to continue in the CG role. Examining the DAS longitudinally could also inform intervention delivery as dementia severity progresses.