INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON FOUR DECISION SUPPORT INTERVENTIONS IN COMMUNITY-BASED DEMENTIA CARE

Worldwide the number of people living with dementia is increasing. As the course of dementia is characterized by decreasing self-reliance and increasing need for support, persons with dementia and their families are frequently confronted with problems in daily life and difficult decisions concerning care and support options. Internationally, there is an urgent need to support persons with dementia and their families in making deliberate decisions about care and support options and to ensure that they receive adequate care. In this symposium four decision support interventions from the Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States will be presented, with each focusing on a unique aspect of the development, evaluation and implementation of the interventions. First, the development and the pilot testing of the Conversation Guide Dementia, a tool for formal caregivers to support shared decision making in advanced care planning, will be discussed. Second, the efficacy evaluation and potential added value of a decision support app for formal caregivers to facilitate decisions concerning aging in place of people with dementia will be presented. Third, lessons learned from the development and evaluation of the DECIDE manual, a decision for family carers supporting them with decisions about the place to life of a person with dementia, will be described. Fourth, strategies, challenges and implications of the commercialization of the SHARE for Dementia Program, an early stage dyadic care planning intervention will be outlined. Finally, the discussant will reflect on the challenges in developing, testing and implementing decision support interventions in dementia care.