Beadle Receives Grant to Study Caregiver Stress

The Great Plains IDeA-Clinical Translational Research (CTR) Network at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) has announced five awardees for its 2018 Scholars Program grants.

Among those awardees is Janelle Beadle, Ph.D., assistant professor of gerontology at UNO.

Beadle was recognized for her project, “The Psychological, Neural, and Hormonal Bases of Caregiver Compassion Fatigue.”

Compassion fatigue is the experience of secondary traumatic stress symptoms which is associated with a reduced capacity to provide compassionate care to others.

“Currently, adults 65 years and older make up 15 percent of the United States population, and by 2060 this percentage is expected to nearly double to 24 percent. Among this age group, one in 10 will develop Alzheimer’s disease,” Beadle says. “There is a critical need for high quality, empathetic caregivers to provide support to older adults with dementia.”

Beadle points out that caregivers who experience compassion fatigue are at greater risk for developing depression, and may be more likely to provide poorer quality care to their patients.

Through the program, Beadle was awarded partial salary support and up to $50,000 annually to support her preliminary research efforts for up to four years.

In addition to Beadle, awardees were also selected from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Nebraska at Kearney and Boys Town National Research Hospital along with universities from South Dakota, North Dakota and Kansas.