1 of 10

Wellness Action via Engagement (WAVE) Program for Older Family Caregivers of Adults with IDD

Participating trainees: Ally Sarussi (PT) and Kylie Graves (Medical Student)

Project Supervisor: Dr. Kelly Hsieh

IL LEND OPEN HOUSE 2026

1

2 of 10

Background

  • Adult caregivers of individuals with IDD face increased levels of adverse health outcomes

​

  • Few studies have looked at addressing the mental and physical health of this population

​

  • Goal: Improve caregiver health by using principles of social cognitive theory to increase engagement with physical activity and other wellness habits

​

  • Study participants include: family caregivers age 45+ of an adult with an intellectual or developmental disability
    • Caregiver can walk without a walking aid

​

​

2

3 of 10

Where we are involved…

3

4 of 10

Our Role Within the WAVE Project

    • Create chronic health curriculum and training materials for the intervention
    • Develop the virtual training materials based on research
      • Identifying resources
      • Planning sessions
      • Translating scientific studies into simple language
    • Support research team in preparation of study materials for pilot testing
      • Assist in the development of pre- and post-training survey questions

4

5 of 10

Process

  • Completed research for chronic health conditions using the 6 Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine as a framework

​

​

​

​

  • Created a fact sheet with the most common chronic health conditions
  • Developed micro-learning powerpoints for the asynchronous chronic health training sessions
  • Began script-writing for asynchronous training video recordings

5

6 of 10

What is Lifestyle Medicine?

Goal of Lifestyle Medicine: significantly reduce chronic disease risk and improve daily energy, mood, and quality of life.

​

6 Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine:

Whole food, plant forward nutrition

Physical Acvitity

Restorative Sleep

Stress Management

Social connection

Avoidance of risky substances

6

7 of 10

Key Outcomes

  • Created chronic health conditions factsheet
  • Created 6 total microlearning powerpoints
    • Intro to Chronic Health Conditions
    • Arthritis
    • Asthma
    • Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes
    • Hypertension
    • Obesity

​

7

8 of 10

Key Outcomes

.

​

8

9 of 10

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

  • Knowledge about the six pillars of lifestyle medicine and how these pillars can apply to patients, clients, and families we will encounter in our respective fields
  • Practice translating scientific language into simple, comprehensible materials for a target audience (adult caregivers)
    • Both visual materials for participants and scripts for research team to follow
  • An increased understanding of the research process, specifically related to designing a virtual research program and physical activity intervention

​

9

10 of 10

References

  • https://www.uclahealth.org/departments/medicine/medicine-pediatrics/clinical-services/ucla-lifestyle-medicine-clinic/six-pillars-lifestyle-medicine-aclm-aligned

​

10