Design and Development of a Community-Based, Interdisciplinary, Collaborative Dementia Care Program

Objective: To describe the design, development, and baseline characteristics of enrollees of a home-based, interdisciplinary, dyadic, pilot dementia care program. Design: Single-arm, dementia care intervention in partnership with primary care providers delivered by Health Coaches to persons with dementia and caregiver dyads and supervised by an interdisciplinary team. Setting: Homeand virtual-based dyad support. Participants: Persons with mild cognitive impairment or dementia diagnosis and/or who were prescribed antidementia medications; had an identified caregiver willing to participate; were under the care of a partner primary care provider; and had health insurance through the affiliated accountable care organization (Banner Health Network). Intervention: Provision of personalized dementia education and support in the home or virtually by Health Coaches supported by an interdisciplinary team. Measurements: Cognition, function, mood, and behavior of persons with dementia; caregiver stress and program satisfaction; primary care provider satisfaction. Results: Served dyads from three primary care clinics with a total of 87 dyads enrolled between December 2018 and June 2020. Conclusion: A pilot Dementia Care Partners demonstrated feasibility and suggested acceptability, and high satisfaction among primary care providers and caregivers. (Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2022; 30:651-660)

Automated summary

This article describes the design, development, and baseline characteristics of a home-based, interdisciplinary, dyadic pilot dementia care program. The program provides personalized dementia education and support to persons with dementia and caregiver dyads through Health Coaches supported by an interdisciplinary team. The results demonstrate the feasibility and high satisfaction among primary care providers and caregivers.