Information provision services in dementia care.

There are currently 25 million people with dementia worldwide, and this number is rising. Dementia has been highlighted as a major priority for health care and research because of the enormous economical and health burden associated with it. Consultations with people with dementia and carers have highlighted that timely well-targeted information services are a key priority for enabling them to 'live well with dementia'. Despite this, the evidence base for the optimal design and delivery of an information provision service is limited. Findings from randomised controlled trials and other studies have indicated that information provision does confer some benefit in carer outcomes and in the symptoms and well-being of people with dementia. However, there is limited understanding of the optimal design of such a service because of the variety of approaches that have been evaluated, the wide range of settings and locations and the lack of a clear conceptual framework. The existing evidence base supports the importance of an optimised information provision service and strongly indicates the need for a large-scale RCT to identify the most effective and cost-effective design for people with dementia and their carers.