Motivational Interviewing to Enhance Advance Care Planning for Older Adults and Caregivers After Emergency Visits

Launched by THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG · Oct 13, 2023

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial is studying a program called motivational interviewing (MI) to help older adults and their family caregivers make important decisions about their future healthcare, known as advance care planning (ACP). The focus is on older adults who have visited the Emergency Room (ER) in the past six months. The researchers want to see if this MI approach can help these individuals complete their advance directives (AD), which are documents that outline their healthcare wishes.

To participate, older adults need to be at least 65 years old, have had an ER visit recently, and have a family caregiver who can join them in the study. They should be able to communicate in Chinese and cannot already have completed an advance directive. Family caregivers must be 18 or older and can be a family member or close friend nominated by the older adult. In the study, some participants will receive special interviews to guide them in making their healthcare plans, while others will only receive a self-education booklet. If you're interested in helping improve healthcare planning for older adults, this trial could be an important opportunity.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• • The target group will be dyads comprising older adults who have had ER visits within the previous six months and their family caregivers. A dyad is defined as one older adult and one primary family caregiver of the older adult.
• For older adults:
• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Aged 65 or older
• • At least one episode of ER visit in the last six months
• • Has a family caregiver to be present during the intervention
• • Able to communicate in Chinese
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • Has completion of an AD
• • Moderate to severe cognitive impairment or diagnosis of dementia, as identified in health records
• • Communication problems (e.g., deafness or aphasia)
• For family caregivers:
• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Aged 18 or above
• • Immediate or extended family member or friend nominated by an eligible older adult participant as primary caregiver
• • Able to communicate in Chinese
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • Moderate to severe cognitive impairment
• • Communication problems (e.g., deafness or aphasia)