Jori Fleisher
Rush University, IL·Medicine & Clinical Research
Lewy body dementia (LBD) is the second most common degenerative dementia, affecting at least 2.4 million people in the US. Most are cared for by family members.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Public Health & Epidemiology
Psychology
- Topics
Lewy body dementia
dementia caregiving
caregiver strain
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2028
What they work on
- Measure whether the peer mentor-delivered PERSEVERE program improves Lewy body dementia caregivers' knowledge, attitudes, mastery and strain, in a randomized trial of 502 caregivers compared with educational links alone.
- Identify the program and mentor factors that determine whether PERSEVERE is delivered as designed, using biweekly fidelity tracking, mentor focus groups and caregiver interviews.
- Test whether PERSEVERE improves quality of life and reduces hospital and emergency department use for people living with Lewy body dementia over nine months.
More about the research
LBD combines movement problems, memory loss and psychiatric symptoms, and patients often suffer falls, infections, dehydration and hallucinations or agitation that send them to the emergency room. Caregiver strain in LBD is higher than in other dementias. It harms caregivers' own health and independently raises the patient's risk of hospitalization and nursing-home placement. Family caregivers could help prevent some of these crises, but many lack the knowledge, skills and support to do so, and no LBD-specific caregiver programs exist.
Why it matters
Families caring for someone with Lewy body dementia face heavy strain, and their loved ones are often hospitalized after falls, infections or psychiatric crises. If peer mentoring by experienced caregivers reduces strain and avoidable emergency visits, it could become a practical, scalable support model. It may also be adapted for caregivers of people with other dementias.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jia-Rong Wu
University of Tennessee-Knoxville, TN·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test whether the nurse-delivered FamLit intervention improves medication adherence over 12 months in heart failure patients and their care partners, compared with an attention-control group, in a randomized trial of 164 dyads.
Gayenell Magwood
University of South Carolina-Columbia, SC·Public Health & Epidemiology
Refine the iCINGS FAM intervention through interviews and focus groups with rural community stakeholders, so that it fits individual, family, community and social needs for managing illness as a dyad.
Nicholas Seyfried
Emory University, GA·Biochemistry
Build a longitudinal Lewy body dementia registry under the Parkinson's Disease Biomarker Program, collecting clinical data and biospecimens to support validation of protein biomarkers.
The school
Rush University: 7 labs on PI Pages, $139M a year on research, 26 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.