e-Learning Tools for Informal Caregivers of Patients with Dementia—A Review Study

Abstract

Currently, due to the changing demographic trends, there is a growing number of older people suffering from aging diseases such as dementia. Dementia is a neurological disorder, which develops gradually, but progressively. Especially in the last stage of dementia, patients are fully dependent on caregiver’s help since they are not able to take care of themselves. The purpose of this article is to explore the use of e-learning as an informal caregiver’s tool for persons with dementia and discuss its benefits and limitations in order to improve the quality of life of caretakers of people with dementia. The methodology is based on a literature review of the research topic, i.e., the use of e-learning tools for informal caretakers of patients with dementia in the period of January 1, 2015 to June 30, 2019. The findings show that the informal caregivers in all identified articles were satisfied with the e-learning platform, program, or the course whose content tried to help them acquire more information and knowledge about the disease, as well as educate them how to cope with the perceived distress and enhance empathy for their patients. One of the main limitations of this review is a lack of studies found on the research topic. However, this fact has been confirmed by other research studies, which reveal that technologies evaluated for informal caregivers are rare. Therefore, more research should be done in this area.