Preventing and Managing Caregiver Burnout

Learning Objectives

  1. Describe the health effects of family caregiving in later life
  2. Describe self-care strategies to optimize health and wellbeing for older family caregivers
  3. Describe bereavement after caregiving

Sarah T. Stahl, PhD

Dr. Stahl is a developmental psychologist and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Clinical and Translational Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. She is core faculty in the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Behavioral Health, Media, and Technology; Center for Sleep and Circadian Science; and Center for Caregiving Research, Education, and Policy.

Her areas of expertise include geriatric mental health, circadian rhythms, family caregiving, grief and bereavement, behavioral intervention development, and technology and aging. Her work has focused on circadian disruption of health behaviors in late-life depression with an emphasis on developing and testing digital health interventions that stabilize the 24-hour rhythm of sleep, meals, and activity.  She is particularly interested in promoting the health and wellbeing of older adults who are at risk for depression following stressful life events like family caregiving and spousal bereavement. Dr. Stahl is PI or Co-I for several NIH-funded clinical trials that range from proof-of-concept studies to confirmatory efficacy trials. In addition to her research efforts, she has served as a research mentor for multiple trainees in a NIMH T-32 for mood disorders/geriatric mental health.