Headline

This toolkit offers clinical tools, training resources, and case studies of evidence-based care models that support people living with dementia and their caregivers.

Context

Older adults living with dementia — a rapidly growing population — experience long periods of disability and have complex care needs, and their caregivers often do not receive comprehensive education and training to care for their family members. Improving dementia care and support for caregivers can alleviate suffering for patients and caregivers while reducing avoidable utilization and costs. This toolkit created by the Center to Advance Palliative Care supports providers and health systems in implementing evidence-based approaches to improve the quality of life for people with dementia and their caregivers.

Findings

This toolkit includes the following sections:

• Getting Started: Two comprehensive guides with practical steps for providers to improve dementia care; one focused on primary care teams providing dementia care, and one on identification, assessment, and support of people living with dementia and their caregivers.
• Clinical Tools and Training for Best Practices in Dementia Care: Validated clinical assessment tools for patients and caregivers, continuing education courses for providers, patient and caregiver support resources, including online caregiver education, and other resources to identify and facilitate referrals for community-based services.
• Case Studies: Descriptions of evidence-based dementia care models, including an interdisciplinary collaborative care model, models for home-based care management, and caregiver education and support interventions.

Takeaways

Providers and health systems can use this toolkit to implement evidence-based dementia care models, improve the quality of dementia care, and effectively train clinicians across specialties to better support people living with dementia and their caregivers.