Developing and evaluating community based intervention programs for Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers

Innovative community based social and behavioral interventions for individu als suffering from Alzheimer's disease and their family caregivers have inc reased substantially in creativity and recognition over the years. However, the commitment to the scientific design and evaluations of these programs has not followed suit. The goal of this paper is to explicate the benefits of a systematic approach to the design and evaluation of intervention progr ams with the challenges of the Alzheimer's dyad in mind. Because of the uni que nature of the disease, Alzheimer's programs must flexibly apply existin g intervention and evaluation techniques to program designs which accommoda te the degenerative course of the disease and the unique strain experienced by family caregivers. Using existing literature as a vehicle to illustrate how successful and unsuccessful programs have addressed these goals, the p aper stresses the need for design and evaluations which apply creative and robust treatments, but do not compromise scientific rigor.