Community care for patients with Alzheimer's disease and non-demented elderly people: use and satisfaction with services and unmet needs in family caregivers
✍ Scribed by Marirosa Dello Buono; Renata Busato; Manuela Mazzetto; Bruno Paccagnella; Federica Aleotti; Orazio Zanetti; Angelo Bianchetti; Marco Trabucchi; Diego De Leo
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 106 KB
- Volume
- 14
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0885-6230
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Objective. This study measures and compares use of and satisfaction with medical and social services in addition to subjectively perceived needs of family supporters of patients with probable or possible Alzheimer's disease (AD) and family supporters of non-demented elderly people. Dierences in judgement of services within the subpopulation of families of AD patients are also assessed by gender and burden level.
Methods. The main family supporters of 60 community-dwelling elderly (aged over 65) with Alzheimer's disease and of 60 age-and sex-matched controls were tested with a detailed questionnaire on use and satisfaction with services, any unmet needs and kinds of intervention perceived to be helpful.
Results. Supporters of elderly people with AD were signi®cantly more involved in providing care than supporters of non-demented people. Judgement on the health, social relations and ®nancial status of their families was signi®cantly worse in AD supporters than in supporters of non-demented elderly people. Although the former made more use of available health and social services than the control population, they did appear to make little use of such services, not only because of lack of information but also for logistic reasons or because they would prefer a service with more speci®cally trained operators or more tailored intervention. AD family supporters would like to receive more information and support from their general practitioner, which con®rms the importance of this ®gure in management of this pathology. They were less satis®ed with the care provided than the control population, particularly those with a moderate±high burden. Irrespective of burden level, they also expressed a need for ®nancial and psychological support and adequate intervention schemes, especially within the home. These should be provided by specially trained personnel and be tailored to speci®cally manage the individual patient's problems, especially in relation to behavioural disorders. This would help alleviate caregiver burden and allow patients to continue to be managed at home.