“Care to Plan”: Online Tool Gives Dementia Caregivers Tailored Resources

​The University of Minnesota Center on Aging unveiled an online tool called "Care to Plan" that provides tailored, evidence-based recommendations for family members and nonrelative caregivers of people with dementia, as reported in the November 2015 issue of The Gerontologist. Many family members or nonrelative caregivers struggle to find the support needed to determine the best approach to care for a person with Alzheimer disease or a related dementia. Caregivers often cited a lack of feasible, quality information about support strategies or services available to help them through the care planning process, noting they rely instead on an arduous process of trial and error. Although resources such as Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral and the Alzheimer's Association have similar purposes and provide a plethora of information, the initial study indicated these resources may not meet the diverse needs of individual caregivers and their unique situations. Care to Plan serves as an interactive database that users in the testing and beta stages found easy to use and provides information on the types of support available to caregivers, such as educational programs, support groups, mental health therapies, and combination services.