Nursing professor Michele Clark is looking for ways to prevent the alarming rate of depression among caregivers of the elderly. A clinician with more than 30 years clinical experience in the home health care setting, Clark developed an interest in this area during her many interactions with the families of dependent elders in her practice. Through time, she began to notice how the complex physical and emotional needs of elders placed their family members at risk for burnout and depression.

"More than 50 percent of caregivers are at risk for depression," Clark says. "The common pharmacological treatments for depression can take weeks to months to show therapeutic effect, if they do at all. So, instead of treating caregivers once they become depressed, it seems much more appropriate to prevent depression before it occurs."

In order to develop appropriate treatments, Clark seeks to understand the underlying psychological and physiological factors that place caregivers at risk for depression. Specifically, she is investigating how and why the act of caregiving affects mood, and how a caregiver's individual personality factors increase depression risk. She has also begun evaluating clinical stress assessment tools for their applicability to caregivers, with the ultimate goal of developing a novel instrument to measure stress patterns specific to this population.

"The stress associated with caregiving - beyond leading to depression - places caregivers at risk for heart disease, diabetes, and dementia," she says. "Preventing stress not only improves the health of caregivers, but also enables them to continue providing adequate care for their loved ones without relying solely on an already strained health care system."