Improving aged care staff knowledge of later life sexuality is needed. Continuing education and training should provide to support the expression of later life sexuality including those with dementia.
Aim:To establish an understanding of (a) healthcare professionals' knowledge and attitudes; and (b) tools used to assess sexuality in older people living with/(out) dementia and those identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or intersex (LGBTI) individuals.
Design:Integrative review of the literature as registered on the PROSPERO international Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (CRD42019129589). Data sources: A comprehensive and systematic literature search was conducted for the period from 2009 to 2019 across eight electronic databases; CINAHL, PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Cochrane library, Embase, PsycINFO and Scopus, together with a manual search of reference lists.Review Methods: Screening of titles, abstracts and full texts of eligible studies plus quality appraisal (using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool) were independently conducted by two reviewers with disagreements resolved via discussion with a third reviewer.Results: Nineteen articles were reviewed with three themes identified from the synthesis: 1) varying knowledge and attitudes amongst healthcare professionals; 2) needs for professional development opportunities and support from workplace and 3) lack of recent validated tools to assess knowledge and attitudes.
Conclusion:Healthcare professionals' knowledge and attitudes towards sexuality in older people living with/(out) dementia and those identified as LGBTI individuals are varying.Sexuality education and professional development training are needed to enhance their knowledge and attitudes and build skills in order to manage sexuality concerns. Current assessment tools are inadequate, highlighting the need for an appropriate assessment tool development to be developed.
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