Dementia is a progressive disorder that affects many people worldwide including informal caregivers of individuals with dementia (Harrison et al., 2019). Every year, more than 16 million Americans provide more than 17 billion hours of unpaid care for family and friends with Alzheimer’s disease or other related dementias (CDC, 2019). As a result, many informal caregivers experience higher levels of caregiver burden, depression, and anxiety (Amato et al., 2021; Raj et al., 2021; Walter & Pinquart, 2020). This causes an occupational imbalance in caregivers\u27 ability to meet their needs and those of their loved one. Leisure is within occupational therapy\u27s (OT\u27s) practice domain and utilized to facilitate occupational engagement (AOTA, 2020). The purpose of the program development type project was to implement an occupation-based program for informal caregivers of individuals with dementia that incorporates leisure to help improve occupational engagement (Chiu et al., 2020; DiLauro et al., 2017; Lee et al., 2020).https://soar.usa.edu/otdcapstones-spring2022/1017/thumbnail.jp
