Tabatabaei-Jafari Hossein, Furst Mary Anne, Bagheri Nasser, D'Cunha Nathan M, Bail Kasia, Sachdev Perminder S, Salvador-Carulla Luis
Mental Health Policy Unit, Health Research Institute, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
School of Rehabilitation and Exercise Science, Faculty of Health, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
Health Serv Insights. 2024 Feb 11;17:11786329241232254. doi: 10.1177/11786329241232254. eCollection 2024.
This study evaluates the dementia care system in a local area and aimed to include all specialised services designed to provide health and social services to people with dementia or age-related cognitive impairment, as well as general services with a high or very high proportion of clients with dementia.
The study used an internationally standardised service classification instrument called Description and Evaluation of Services and DirectoriEs for Long Term Care (DESDE-LTC) to identify and describe all services providing care to people with dementia in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).
A total of 47 service providers were eligible for inclusion. Basic information about the services was collected from their websites, and further information was obtained through interviews with the service providers. Of the 107 services offered by the 47 eligible providers, 27% (n = 29) were specialised services and 73% (n = 78) were general services. Most of the services were residential or outpatient, with a target population mostly of people aged 65 or older, and 50 years or older in the case of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. There were government supports available for most types of care through various programmes.
Dementia care in the ACT relies heavily on general services. More widespread use of standardised methods of service classification in dementia will facilitate comparison with other local areas, allow for monitoring of changes over time, permit comparison with services provided for other health conditions and support evidence-informed local planning.
本研究评估了当地的痴呆症护理系统，旨在纳入所有旨在为痴呆症患者或与年龄相关的认知障碍患者提供健康和社会服务的专业服务，以及痴呆症患者比例高或非常高的一般服务。
该研究使用一种国际标准化的服务分类工具，即《长期护理服务描述与评估及目录》（DESDE-LTC），来识别和描述澳大利亚首都地区（ACT）为痴呆症患者提供护理的所有服务。
共有47个服务提供商符合纳入条件。从其网站收集了服务的基本信息，并通过与服务提供商的访谈获得了进一步信息。在47个符合条件的提供商提供的107项服务中，27%（n = 29）为专业服务，73%（n = 78）为一般服务。大多数服务是住院或门诊服务，目标人群主要是65岁及以上的人，对于澳大利亚原住民和托雷斯海峡岛民则为50岁及以上的人。通过各种项目，大多数类型的护理都有政府支持。
ACT的痴呆症护理严重依赖一般服务。在痴呆症领域更广泛地使用标准化的服务分类方法将有助于与其他地区进行比较，便于监测随时间的变化，允许与为其他健康状况提供的服务进行比较，并支持基于证据的地方规划。
