The Caregiver Clinic at CHOIR
The Caregiver Clinic, within the Center for Health Outcomes and Interdisciplinary Research (CHOIR) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) delivers evidence-based psychological treatments for care partners and dyads (patients and care partners, together) managing adult neurological conditions.
Our clinicians specialize in psychological concerns associated with the following adult neurological conditions:
Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias
Parkinson’s disease and related disorders
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Multiple Sclerosis
Mild cognitive impairment
We offer a range of psychological services to treat presenting concerns among care partners of adults with neurological conditions. Common presenting concerns include stress, depression, anxiety, adjustment to the caregiving role, and emotional burnout. Our evidence-based treatments aim to improve emotional health and increase confidence and skills as a caregiver.
For dyads, we often treat the following concerns: interpersonal conflict and communication challenges, adjustment to role changes, and emotional distress. Our evidence-based treatments aim to improve emotional health for each member of the dyad and improve relationship satisfaction.
Our Mission
Our mission is to improve the emotional wellness of all persons affected by adult neurological disorders to empower individuals and families to grow closer along their illness journeys.
Why Do We Focus on Care Partners of Adult Neurological Conditions?
Increasingly, healthcare is recognizing that neurological conditions affect not only the individual with the diagnosis, but their entire care networks (e.g., family, friends). Care recipients with a neurological condition and their care partners must navigate changes in ability, difficult conversations, and emotional distress, together. Although emotional support needs are central to the illness journey, there are gaps in the availability of specialized psychological services specifically for care partners and dyads (i.e., the patient and care partner together). State, federal, and non-profit programs are often focused on illness education and case management needs, and rarely addressing emotional issues related to illness. Further, there are few clinicians specialty-trained to treat clinical levels of emotional distress (e.g., depression, anxiety) among this group of patients and care partners. In fact, in the AARP Caregiving in the US 2020 Report, managing emotional/physical stress was the most cited topic that care partners reported needing more help navigating. The negative health effects of these stressors for care partners are well documented, increasing the need for psychological services. The AARP reports:
“This decline in caregiver self-reported health is concerning, as the stress associated with caregiving may exacerbate declines in health that occur with age. This means that supports for caregivers and their recipients will be even more critical if this trend in declining caregiver health continues to hold. From a policy perspective, the strain of disease or disability on a family unit can endanger larger system goals to improve health care and reduce overall costs in an increasingly strained system.”
– AARP Caregiving in the US 2020 Report
We aim to fill this gap through our commitment to offering the highest quality evidence-based psychological services focused on care partners and dyads navigating adult neurological conditions (e.g., ADRDs, Parkinson’s, MS, ALS, Huntington’s)