Dementia behaviour management programme at home: impact of a palliative care approach on care managers and professional caregivers of home care services

Objectives: Care managers and professional caregivers of home care services are sometimes unaware of the psychosocial approaches to the challenging behaviour of dementia. Therefore, we developed a Behaviour Analytics & Support Enhancement (BASE) programme. We investigated the effects of the programme on the attitudes towards dementia care among professionals. Method: Forty-six participants in Japan received training in August 2016. The ongoing monitoring and assessment system was introduced to the participants for repeated measures of challenging behaviour. A 1-day follow-up meeting for debriefing was also performed after two months. A baseline and follow-up questionnaire survey was administered to the participating caregivers using a Japanese version of the Approaches to Dementia Questionnaire (ADQ) and the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI). Results: A significant improvement was observed in the total ADQ score among the participating caregivers from baseline to follow-up assessment. There was no significant difference between the baseline and follow-up assessment in the ZBI scores. In the follow-up meeting, several participants reported challenges and suggested solutions in facilitating a discussion on an action plan among professionals from various organizations. Conclusion: The implementation of the programme resulted in enhanced attitudes towards dementia care among the participants without an increased burden of care. Future studies should examine the programme's effectiveness on the challenging behaviour of persons with dementia.