The Dementia Symptom Management at Home Program: A Bundled Interprofessional Intervention to Improve Dementia Patient-Caregiver Dyad Quality of Care and Quality of Life Through Home Healthcare.
Persons with dementia and their caregivers are often cared for in the community through home healthcare (HHC). While these patients and their caregivers need significant help and often have difficulty maintaining their quality of life, home healthcare clinicians are often unprepared to care for this population. This study will therefore examine the ability of an integrated, multi-pronged evidence-based practice intervention for home healthcare registered nurses, occupational therapists and physical therapists, the DSM-H, to improve the quality of care and quality of life for persons with dementia and their family caregiver. The investigators will enroll persons with dementia and their family caregiver upon admission to the HHC agency and examine their quality of life over 60 days following admission, comparing those who receive the intervention to those who serve as controls.
• patient-caregiver dyad admitted to the HHC agency
• Patients must be 65 or older and speak English and/or Spanish.
• Patient must have an informal caregiver who is at least 18 years old and spends at least 8 hours per week with the patient.
• Patients must score greater than 4 on the cognitive subscale of the Healthy Aging Brain Care Monitor signifying at least mild impairment