Results
Thirty-six individuals attended the 2013 fair, and 138 individuals attended the 2015 fair. Thirty-one surveys were completed in 2013, yielding an 86% response rate. One hundred six surveys were returned and represented responses for 129 individuals in 2015, yielding a 94% response rate in 2015. Most of the 2013 attendees were caregivers, followed by veterans, VA staff, and outside staff (Table 2). In contrast, most of the 2015 attendees were VA staff, followed by veterans, caregivers/family members, outside staff, and others. Distributions of attendees differed significantly across the fairs: χ2(4) = 12.66; P = .01.
The surveys assessed which tables attendees visited and their perceptions of the fair. The most frequently visited resource table for both 2013 and 2015 fairs was the Alzheimer’s Association table. Other popular resource tables were VA Benefits and VA Caregiver Support in 2013 and Home Safety and End of Life Care in 2015. Ninety-six percent of 2013 attendees and 100% of 2015 attendees strongly agreed or agreed that “attending the dementia fair was worth my time and effort.” Eighty-three percent of 2013 attendees and 100% of 2015 attendees felt that they had learned something useful at the fair. The proportion of individuals reporting that they had learned something useful significantly increased from 2013 to 2015: χ2(2) = 18.07; P = .0001.
To summarize the open-ended responses to the question “What was most helpful about the fair?” the authors constructed a word cloud that displays the 75 most frequently used words in attendees’ descriptions of the 2015 fair (Figure). Attendees provided suggestions about additional information and resources they desired, which included VA benefits enrollment, books and movies about dementia (eg, Still Alice), speech and swallowing disorders representatives, varied types of advance directives, class discussion, question-and-answer time with speakers, and resources for nonveteran older adults. General suggestions for future fairs included hosting the fair at the main division of the VA health care system, having more room between tables, inviting more vendors, using more visual posters at the tables, and additional advertising for VA services.
Discussion
Dementia is a costly disease with detrimental health and well-being effects on caregivers. The dementia resource fairs aimed to connect caregivers with resources for veterans with dementia in the VA and in the community. Given that nearly half the 2015 fair attendees were VA staff, there is an apparent need for increasing dementia education and access to care resource for this VAMC’s workforce. The high proportion of staff attendees at the 2015 fair may be attributed to the 2 VA community living centers at the VAMC site where the fair was held. This unexpected finding points to the importance of informal and interactive education opportunities for staff, particularly those working with veterans with dementia. The fair served an important role for VA staff seeking information on dementia for professional and personal reasons. This systematic evaluation of the fair demonstrated a need for improving access to information about dementia.
The idea of hosting a dementia resource fair was met with enthusiasm from attendees and subcommittee members in 2013. Feedback helped refine the second fair. The increase in self-reported learning from 2013 to 2015 suggests improvements may have been made between the first and second fair; however, this must be interpreted in light of the different compositions of the attendees at each fair and the absence of a control group. Attendees desired even more information about dementia at the second fair, as evidenced by suggestions to have presentations, speakers, and class discussions. These responses suggest that other sites may wish to consider holding similar events. Next steps include researching the effectiveness of low-cost, pragmatic educational initiatives for caregivers. In fact, randomized, controlled trials of dementia caregiver education and skill-building interventions are underway at VAPAHCS.
Conclusion
The primary lesson learned from the most recent fair was that marketing is the key to success. The authors created an efficient hospital publicity plan in 2015 that included (1) flyers posted throughout 2 main medical center campuses; (2) announcements on closed-circuit VA waiting room televisions; (3) e-mail announcements sent to staff; and (4) VA social media announcements. Flyers also were mailed to known caregivers, and announcements of the event were provided to local community agencies. This focus on publicity likely contributed to the substantial increase in participation from the 2013 to 2015 fair.
Future fairs may be improved by providing more detailed information about dementia through formal presentations. The authors aim to increase the number of family caregivers in attendance possibly through coordinating the fair to coincide with primary care clinic hours, advertising the availability of brief respite at the fair, and conducting additional outreach to veterans.
This systematic evaluation of the dementia resource fair confirmed that providing resources in a drop-in setting resulted in self-reported learning about resources available for veterans with dementia. VA dementia care providers are encouraged to use the authors’ time line and lessons learned to develop dementia resource fairs for their sites.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge the members of the 2013 and 2015 Dementia Resource Fair Committees, chaired by Betty Wexler and Kathleen McConnell, respectively. Dr. Gould is supported by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (IK2 RX001478) and by Ellen Schapiro & Gerald Axelbaum through a 2014 NARSAD Young Investigator Grant from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. Dr. Scanlon is supported by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (IK2 RX001240; I21 RX001710), U.S. Department of Defense (W81XWH-15-1-0246), Sierra-Pacific Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center, and Stanford/VA Alzheimer’s Research Center. Drs. Gould and Scanlon also receive support from Palo Alto Veterans Institute for Research.