Culturally Adapting and Refining “Descubriendo Soluciones Juntos” for Care Partners of Adults with Neurological Conditions

Culturally relevant evidence-based interventions for Spanish speaking Latinx care partners are needed to address negative outcomes often associated with caregiver burden. Problem Solving Training (PST), an evidence-based, problem-solving skills training intervention with a person-centered approach is optimal for adaptation to other languages and cultures. Our objective was to culturally adapt PST to Descubriendo Soluciones Juntos (DSJ) for Spanish-speaking Latinx care partners of adults with neurological disorders through and iterative process of translation and language validation and input from therapists and Spanish-speaking Latinx care partners engaged in the intervention. Three primarily Spanish-speaking care partners completed a single-group, pre-post-test design pilot study of DSJ, comprising six one-on-one sessions delivered via telephone or videoconference and baseline and post-intervention measures of caregiver burden, depressive symptoms, and positive aspects of caregiving. Iterative cultural adaptation occurred in concordance with Marsiglia and Booth’s (Res Soc Work Pract 25:423–432, 2015) roadmap for cultural adaptation. Process-based and content-based adaptations are described, resulting in a final protocol for DSJ that maintains the core components of PST. All participants were satisfied with DSJ and reported positive changes in caregiver burden, positive aspects of caregiving, and/or relationship quality with their care recipient. PST/DSJ is a bicultural problem-solving intervention with potential to provide much needed evidence-based support to Spanish-speaking Latinx care partners.