Dr. Han's research interests are psychological and behavioral interventions for caregivers of older adults (e.g., family caregivers of people with dementia), older adults, and people with neurological disorders.
Dr. Han has actively served as the principal investigator (PI) in various research projects to develop interventions for family caregivers, formal caregivers, and/or health care professionals of people with dementia and older adults living alone and test the efficacy of the developed interventions.
She received TWU 2016-2017 Chancellor’s Research Fellows Program at Texas Woman's University (role: PI) and Korean government grants, including National Research Foundation of Korea (role: PI) and Korea Health Industry Development Institute (role: Co-I). In the Korean government-funded projects, Dr. Han has also served as the coach delivering simulation-based empathy enhancement programs with empowerment sessions to 105 social workers and 104 paid caregivers of older adults living alone and 101 family caregivers of people with dementia to improve mental health, empathy, and coping strategies of these caregivers.
Dr. Han recently received the American Occupational Therapy Foundation intervention research grant (2021-2022; role: PI) and the Alzheimer's Association Research Grant (2022-2025; role: PI) examining the effects of coach-guided videoconferencing acceptance and commitment therapy on distressed family caregivers of people with dementia. Also, Dr. Han is serving as a Co-investigator of a Korean government fund, which aims to develop a robot counseling platform based on behavioral activation for improving physical health and decreasing the loneliness of older adults (2021-2023).
