Caregiver Family Therapy (CFT)

Engage family caregivers in active and focused problem solving approaches related to family caregiving to improve quality of care, reduce burden and improve family functioning.

The strategy is to address systematically the core processes that caregiving family systems must address, regardless of the stage of care or the care recipient's diagnosis. Of the six core processes, those that are challenging the family become the focus of intervention: naming the problem, structuring care, role structuring, role reverberations, caregiver self-care and widening the lens. The six areas are presented as a heuristic for the therapist to follow but does not imply a rigid prescription of intervention work in all six areas or that work in one area must be completed before moving to another area.

Caregivers of older family members who need assistance due to cognitive or chronic health problems.

Qualls, S. Honn (2008). Caregiver family therapy. In B. Knight & K. Laidlaw (Eds.), Handbook of emotional disorders in older adults (pp. 183-209). Oxford University Press.

Qualls, S. H., & Noecker, T L. (2009). Caregiver family therapy for conflicted families. In S. H. Qualls & S. H. Zarit (Eds.), Aging families and caregiving: A clinician's guide to research, practice, and technology (pp. 155-188). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Qualls, S. H. & Vair, C. (2012). Caregiver family therapy with dementia. In P. R. Peluso, R. E. Watts, & M. Parsons (Eds.), Changing aging, changing families (pp. 63-78). New York: Routledge.

Qualls, S. H. & Williams, A. A. (2013). Caregiver Family Therapy: Empowering Families to Meet the Challenges of Aging . Washington, D. C.: American Psychological Association