What is it about?
Older adults often rely on family caregivers to remain at home — yet many caregivers experience elevated levels of depressive symptoms. In this study, we tested a step-by-step counseling program designed to be easy to access and responsive to caregivers’ needs. It begins with a brief problem-solving intervention delivered by trained care counselors and, if needed, offers additional telephone-based cognitive behavioral therapy with a psychotherapist. We compared the program to routine care in a sample of 437 family caregivers of older adults. Caregivers who received the program showed significant and sustained reductions in depressive symptoms across post-intervention assessments and 6-month follow-up compared to those receiving routine care.
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Why is it important?
This study is important because it shows that the stepped counseling program can be effective under routine care conditions. The program’s primarily telephone-based delivery improved access to support and, together with proactive outreach, helped reach socioeconomically disadvantaged caregivers who are often underrepresented in research. These findings suggest that the stepped counseling program may offer a scalable and accessible way to support mental health among family caregivers and support considerations for broader dissemination in routine care.
Perspectives
This project has been particularly rewarding for me because it demonstrates that interventions developed in research can also work in routine care settings. Bringing together different professional perspectives—from care counselors to psychotherapists—was a valuable experience and highlights the importance of close collaboration across disciplines. I’m especially glad that we were able to reach caregivers who are often underrepresented in research. I hope this work helps raise awareness of their needs and supports the development of more accessible mental health services for family caregivers of older adults, who play a crucial role in enabling care at home. I would like to thank all co-authors, the ReDiCare study group, all participating caregivers, care counselors from the two long-term care insurance providers (AOK Baden-Württemberg and AOK Bavaria), psychotherapists, and advisory board members for their commitment and contribution to this study.
Nils Töpfer
MSH Medical School Hamburg
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Effectiveness of stepped counseling on depression in distressed family caregivers of older adults: A randomized pragmatic trial (ReDiCare)., Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, May 2026, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/ccp0001004.
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