Importance: Caregivers of individuals with vascular dementia often experience increased burden, limited knowledge, and low confidence due to the lack of structured, condition-specific education and resources.

Objective: To develop, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of a vascular dementia caregiver manual designed to improve caregiver knowledge, confidence, and preparedness within a community respite program.

Design: A mixed-methods pre-post study using unmatched samples. Baseline data were obtained from a prior needs assessment, and post-intervention data were collected immediately following a structured educational session.

Setting: Grace Arbor, a community-based respite care program for individuals with memory impairments in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Participants: Informal caregivers (pre: n = 9; post: n = 12) of individuals diagnosed with vascular dementia. Participants were recruited through convenience sampling via flyers and email distribution.

Intervention: A structured, occupation-based caregiver manual addressing 5 domains (disease progression, communication, home modifications, simple interventions, and caregiver well-being), delivered with an in-person or virtual educational session.

Outcomes and Measures: Outcomes were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U tests to assess differences in knowledge and confidence between pre- and post-intervention groups. Chi-square analyses were conducted to examine changes in response distributions.

Results: Statistically significant improvements were observed in caregiver knowledge and confidence across all domains (all p < .001), with the largest gains in simple interventions and caregiver well-being. Qualitative feedback described the manual as practical, comprehensive, and highly useful.

Conclusion and Relevance: This project demonstrated that a targeted, occupation-based caregiver education manual significantly improves caregiver knowledge and confidence and supports occupational performance outcomes for caregivers and care recipients. Findings support the role of occupational therapy in developing and implementing condition-specific resources to reduce caregiver burden and promote sustained community living.