700 Section - Does Community-Based Rehabilitation Improve Caregiver Competence? Evidence from an Empowerment Training Program

A quasi-experimental comparative study was carried out with 32 caregivers employed at a residential elderly care facility (Panti Werdha) in Surabaya. Participants were separated into two groups: an intervention group (n=15) that received six empowerment training sessions (once a week) based on the WHO CBR Matrix, and a control group (n=17) that received regular institutional orientation without any empowerment training. The training modules included long-term care for the elderly, how to deal with cognitive impairment, how to communicate with patients, disability rights and empowering caregivers, and health promotion and productive activities at home. Outcomes encompassed caregiver knowledge scores, caregiver burden evaluated through the Zarit Burden Interview, and quality of life assessed using the WHOQOL-BREF.


Results: Caregivers in the intervention group exhibited superior post-intervention knowledge scores in critical areas relative to the control group, notably in cognitive impairment management (80.7 vs 72.1), disability rights and caregiver empowerment (84.7 vs 76.9), and home-based health promotion and productive activities (88.7 vs 79.2). Scores in the caregiver burden, and quality-of-life domains showed small improvements in the intervention group, especially in the social relationship and environmental domains.

Conclusion:

A six-session caregiver empowerment program based on Community-Based Rehabilitation principles greatly improved caregivers' knowledge compared to just giving care. From the standpoint of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, CBR-based empowerment constitutes a viable and pertinent approach to enhance rehabilitation-focused caregiving in institutional elderly care. Longer follow-up are necessary to re-evaluate caregiver burden and enhancements in quality of life.