Grant: Fellowhship - PA: Aging -Brain Health and Cognitive Impairment in Aging Res. In.

As Canada's population ages, many families are tasked with caring for relatives at home, particularly those with advanced cancers or Alzheimer's disease and related disorders (ADRD). These conditions often demand significant caregiving, leading to physical and emotional strain for caregivers. Respite care provides crucial support by offering temporary relief, benefiting both caregivers and care receivers. However, access to respite care can be challenging due to inflexible scheduling and concerns about trusting providers' training. To address these barriers, our team developed iRespite Services iRépit ("iRespite"), a bilingual smartphone app designed to make in-home respite care more accessible. Key features include CareNOW for immediate respite scheduling with trained palliative homecare providers and a chatbot to assess caregivers' readiness to engage with respite services. My PhD research focused on designing iRespite for families managing advanced cancers. Now, in my postdoctoral work, we are expanding the app to support families caring for older adults with ADRD. Although caregiving needs differ between cancer and ADRD-such as cancer involving pain management and ADRD focusing on long-term behavioral challenges-both require skilled respite providers and place heavy demands on families. The next phase of this research will evaluate how effectively iRespite serves families caring for those with ADRD, explore strategies for launching the app, and conduct pilot tests in urban and rural areas across Quebec. With successful testing and implementation, iRespite could be scaled up to support families nationwide. By improving access to respite care, iRespite has the potential to enhance caregivers' well-being and help families age well at home for as long as possible.