HISTORY: MINNESOTA FAMILY WORKSHOP TO SAVVY CAREGIVER: CENTRALITY OF SELF-EFFICACY

Abstract This presentation will trace the development of the Savvy Caregiver program from its beginnings as the Center for Nursing Research-supported Minnesota Family Workshop (1993; PI: Sharon Ostwald) through a further test as the Partners in Caregiving Program (1997; PIs: Hepburn 1RO1NR04517-01) to the Alzheimer’s Association-supported Savvy program (1997; PIs Hepburn & Lewis). Three main developments occurred over this period: the program solidified its identity as a caregiver training program and its mechanism of action as that of self-efficacy development through an active learning approach; it sharpened its focus by concentrating on the principal family caregiver (moving away from a broader family approach and eliminating concurrent care recipient programming); and it developed interventionist training materials and programs to enable broader reach. Since 2002, Savvy has enjoyed wide dissemination as an evidence-based in-person psychoeducation program, fostered by support to sponsoring organizations by the Administration on Community Living.

role of perceived discrimination on the association between post-traumatic stress and loneliness.This study examines the association between post-traumatic stress and loneliness and whether that association differs by everyday perceived discrimination among older Puerto Ricans.Data were collected from 304 Puerto Ricans aged 60 and above living in the Greater Boston area who responded to questionnaires.We used ordinary least squares regression to examine the association between post-traumatic stress, perceived everyday discrimination, and loneliness.We found that post-traumatic stress was significantly associated with higher levels of loneliness; however, the association differed by perceived everyday discrimination.The association between post-traumatic stress and loneliness was stronger for those that perceived a higher level of everyday discrimination.Findings underscored the role that perceived discrimination plays in exacerbating loneliness among older Puerto Ricans experiencing post-traumatic stress and have clinical and public health implications for service delivery and mental health promotion among older Puerto Ricans.

SOCIAL ISOLATION AND LONELINESS AMONG OLDER ADULTS IN SUBSIDIZED SENIOR HOUSING: DOES IMMIGRATION STATUS MATTER?
Chung Hyeon Jeong 1 , Jihye Baek 2 , ByeongJu Ryu 3 , Jina Park 2 , BoRin Kim 1 , and Sojung Park 2 , 1. University of New Hampshire,Durham,New Hampshire,United States,2. Washington University in St. Louis,St. Louis,Missouri,United States,3. Chuncheon Hyoja Social Welfare Center,Republic of Korea Older immigrants are at increased risk for social isolation and loneliness due to cultural and linguistic barrier to forming social networks.The vulnerability to social isolation could be exacerbated by the gaps between older immigrants' cultural expectations on social relations and actual social connectivity.Guided by the cognitive discrepancy model of loneliness, this study examined how social isolation influences loneliness among low-income older residents living in subsidized senior housing and if the relation varies by immigration status.Survey data were collected in 2019 and 2020 from 231 residents in subsidized senior housing communities located in St. Louis and Chicago.Social isolation was measured by frequency of social contacts, accounting for the types of relationships (family vs. friends) and the modes of contacts (in-person vs. remote).Loneliness was measured by the Revised University of California Los Angeles loneliness scale.Perceived quality of friendship was also included in the analytic models.The results of multiple linear regression showed that having positive friendship (b=-1.00,p<.001) and more frequent in-person contacts with friends (b=-1.29,p<.001) were negatively associated with loneliness, respectively.A significant moderating effect was found that older immigrants felt less lonely than non-immigrant counterparts when they had more in-person family contacts (b=-1.09,p<.05).The results suggest that the impacts of social isolation on loneliness among senior housing residents could differ depending on immigration status.The findings of this study could contribute to developing culturally sensitive interventions to enhance social connectedness and reduce loneliness among older immigrants in subsidized senior housing.

METAMORPHOSES: THE CONTINUING EVOLUTION AND ADAPTATION OF THE SAVVY CAREGIVER PROGRAM
Chair: Kenneth Hepburn Discussant: Joseph Gaugler This symposium traces the nearly 30 years of development projects, trials, and transformations that continue to occur in efforts to make an evidence-based psychoeducation program (Savvy Caregiver) available to family members and friends who provide care to community-dwelling persons living with dementia illnesses.Savvy seeks to enhance caregivers' knowledge and skills for providing care and to enhance their competence and confidence (sense of mastery) in being able to guide their persons through days that are as safe, calm, and pleasant as possible.Over this period of time, Savvy has clarified its target participant group (focusing on primary caregivers rather than larger family groups), moved from having concurrent sessions for caregivers and persons living with dementia, continued to develop strategies that enable broad implementation while maintaining program fidelity, demonstrated the effectiveness of a synchronous/asynchronous online version that extends program reach (Tele-Savvy), and is currently exploring in an ongoing pilot how best to deliver a fully asynchronous version of the program that employs continuing education principles (Tele-Savvy@Home).The individual presentations will describe the main developmental milestones (investigator led to protocol-trained to online trained interventionist; in-person to synchronous/asynchronous to fully asynchronous) and the structural adaptations that enabled them.Particular emphasis will be placed on design decisions linked to maintaining a psychoeducational orientation and to program emphasis on developing or strengthening caregivers' self-efficacy for providing effective day-to-day care.Three main developments occurred over this period: the program solidified its identity as a caregiver training program and its mechanism of action as that of self-efficacy development through an active learning approach; it sharpened its focus by concentrating on the principal family caregiver (moving away from a broader family approach and eliminating concurrent care recipient programming); and it developed interventionist training materials and programs to enable broader reach.Since 2002, Savvy has enjoyed wide dissemination as an evidence-based in-person psychoeducation program, fostered by support to sponsoring organizations by the Administration on Community Living.

TELE-SAVVY@HOME: CONVERTING TO A COMPLETELY ASYNCHRONOUS DELIVERY APPROACH Fayron Epps, Emory University, Fairburn, Georgia, United States
It is well established that family caregiving is taxing and stressful.Group-based psychoeducational programs such as the Tele-Savvy program demonstrated that the acquisition of skills, knowledge, and caregiving mastery can ameliorate caregiving stress -and enhance PLWD quality of life.Many factors, however, preclude caregivers' attendance in the synchronous portions of Tele-Savvy limiting the program's scalability.To make Tele-Savvy more accessible and available to a growing number of dementia family caregivers, we designed a fully asynchronous version of the Tele-Savvy program, Tele-Savvy@ Home.To accomplish this, we consulted facilitators and caregivers who participated in Tele-Savvy.We also reviewed the existing curriculum, re-wrote portions, reordered modules, and created new videos to cover synchronous content.In addition, we partnered with education design specialists to create interactive and reflection exercises to maintain a psychoeducation orientation and strengthen caregivers' self-efficacy.This strategy may help investigators in their augmentation of the delivery strategies of established interventions.

BRINGING INTERACTIVITY TO FULLY ASYNCHRONOUS PROGRAMS Carolyn Clevenger, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Asynchronous online learning brings both new opportunities as well as challenges to an asynchronous psychoeducation program like Tele-Savvy@Home.While asynchronous learning offers engagement flexibility for time-strapped family caregivers, a lack of scheduled meetings represents a lack of contact and interactivity, threatens accountability, and produces a high incompletion rate.To engage participants in the next generation of this asynchronous, self-paced course, we have implemented a small cohort structure (10 participants each) and created a combination of automated prompts and optional touchpoints.The cohort structure and touchpoints mimic important shared and active learning components of the facilitated sessions.Prompts include weekly messages that nudge learners with reminders of their ideal progress point and offer value propositions for staying on-time.A pacing guide allows caregivers to build the course into their schedule in advance of the course's start.Optional touchpoints include unit-by-unit post-tests, a cohort-based discussion board, and free text reflective exercises.

SOCIAL HEALTH IN THE CASE OF DEMENTIA: AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Chair: Karin Wolf-Ostermann Co-Chair: Myrra Vernooij-Dassen Discussant: Rene Melis Dementia is one of the major age-related societal challenges and causes enormous demands for persons living with dementia (PlwD) and their families.We do not understand the origins of this multifactorial syndrome and there is still no cure for dementia.New thinking by the exploration of paradigms has scope to improve knowledge about this complex condition.Social health can be understood as a driver for stimulating the use of cognitive reserve through active facilitation and utilization of the individual's capacities.It allows to slow cognitive impairment or to maintain cognitive functioning in old age and therefore seems to be a promising approach to a better understanding of the developmental mechanism of dementia.In this international symposium we therefore aim to explore the role of social health in the onset and progress of dementia.The first presentation will present a new framework on understanding social health in dementia.The second presentation will describe convoys of care in a family based culturally sensitive ADRD caregiving intervention reducing care burden and family conflicts.The third presentation reports on the role of immune system and neurodegeneration markers in the association between social health and cognitive brain aging in older adults.The final presentation presents newly derived results from a mixed research synthesis on underlying mechanisms of the interrelation of social health and cognitive functioning, elaborated by the international SHARED-consortium.Our discussant will synthesize the research findings and lead a discussion of future directions for research and practice to successfully fight challenges in dementia care.

CONCEPTUAL ADVANCEMENT FOR SOCIAL HEALTH IN DEMENTIA RESEARCH
Myrra Vernooij-Dassen 1 , Eline Verspoor 1 , Marieke Perry 1 , and Karin Wolf-Ostermann 2 , 1. Radboud University,Nijmegen,Gelderland,Netherlands,2. University of Bremen,Bremen,Bremen,Germany Savvy's experience may help investigators in designing new interventions, particularly online interventions or in considering augmentation or delivery platform change of established interventions.HISTORY: MINNESOTA FAMILY WORKSHOP TO SAVVY CAREGIVER: CENTRALITY OF SELF-EFFICACY Kenneth Hepburn, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States This presentation will trace the development of the Savvy Caregiver program from its beginnings as the Center for Nursing Research-supported Minnesota Family Workshop (1993; PI: Sharon Ostwald) through a further test as the Partners in Caregiving Program (1997; PIs: Hepburn 1RO1NR04517-01) to the Alzheimer's Associationsupported Savvy program (1997; PIs Hepburn & Lewis).
PIs Hepburn & Lewis).Three main developments occurred over this period: the program solidified its identity as a caregiver training program and its mechanism of action as that of self-efficacy development through an active learning approach; it sharpened its focus by concentrating on the principal family caregiver (moving away from a broader family approach and eliminating concurrent care recipient programming); and it developed interventionist training materials and programs to enable broader reach.Since 2002, Savvy has enjoyed wide dissemination as an evidence-based in-person psychoeducation program, fostered by support to sponsoring organizations by the Administration on Community Living.