DOD grant funds USU dementia research

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, there are an estimated 7.4 million people 65 and older living with dementia currently in the United States. Those individuals rely on nearly 13 million caregivers.

This means the majority of individuals who live with dementia have more than one unpaid caregiver throughout their lives. The 2026 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures report says that these caregivers can range from family members to friends, who make up 83% of caregiving hours provided to older adults in the U.S. Included among those caregivers are active and veteran military personnel, families and friends.

These caregivers, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, put in an average of nearly 30 hours per week per caregiver to provide care. This task can be mentally, emotionally and physically taxing, and finding resources to help can be difficult.

Beth Fauth, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Research Center, and her team saw this and decided to take it as an opportunity to create change. Using years of clinical research, Fauth and her team, funded by the Department of Defense, put together the project, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. ACT helps caregivers learn to live with their situations positively.

Fauth explained how ACT promotes mindfulness and acceptance throughout a caregiver’s journey. ACT is an extension of cognitive behavioral therapy, but rather than changing general feelings or thought patterns, ACT specifically focuses on helping an individual learn to live with these difficult experiences by focusing on the things that matter most to them personally.

The goal of this online intervention is to make mental health resources easily accessible for both caregivers and individuals with dementia.

According to Utah State Today, Fauth and her team collaborated and obtained a $1.6 million grant from the DOD to fund their research and carry out the study.

Heather Kelley, a researcher for the Center for Mental Health Promotion, explained the overall goals for the ACT for Caregivers study and the steps that were taken to get there.

“The goal of this study is to test a digital mental health intervention,” Kelley said.

Kelly went on to express her hope for this online intervention option providing caregivers with the support and strategies needed to lead healthy, overall positive lives while administering care to their loved ones.

This online intervention will allow caregivers to receive support that they may not have had access to previously, whether that’s due to location, cost, time or personal feelings of shame or doubt.

Kelley emphasized that one of the main focuses of the study is to help individuals first recognize their feelings and then take actions that will help them acknowledge those feelings while remaining close to what they value.

In the case of the caregivers who are freely giving their time and efforts, what they most value is often their loved one with dementia, so helping them take actions to regulate themselves and be present for their loved one is at the forefront of this study.

“Caregivers reported that it was also improving their relationships, and it was improving their physical health,” Kelley said.

The goal is that this grant will allow these researchers to assess this preliminary finding in a systematic way.

The ACT for Caregivers study will be split into a six-session program.

The study will start by administering a survey for participants to take. After this, they will complete the six-week online intervention, followed by completing the same survey again at the conclusion of the program. Next, there will be a six-week period to see if the participants apply the knowledge to their daily lives, followed by one last survey.

There will be two groups who will receive the intervention, one right away and one at a later date. This will allow researchers to determine if any changes that occur in the caregivers’ lives are due to the intervention.  

Kelley stated that recruitment is anticipated to begin in January 2027.  

This research team is striving to make a positive dent in the lives of caregivers around the U.S., and this grant from the DOD is helping make that possible.