Dementia Care in 9 OECD Countries

Abstract

Dementia and its most common manifestation, Alzheimer's disease, is a complex disorder that afflicts primarily the elderly, affecting an estimated 10 million people in OECD member countries. The complexity of the disease makes treating dementia extremely difficult, involving a wide variety of social and health care interventions. Typically, these two aspects of dementia care are examined separately. This paper adopts a conceptual model that examines both types of interventions and how they interact along the dementia care continuum. 2. There are no effective health care treatments for stopping dementia, which is why the social care aspect plays an important role in treating the disease, with family members an integral part of this process. This paper shows that programs designed to help alleviate the burden of family members caring for a relative with dementia can have positive health benefits to both patient and family. In particular, the use of group-living, where dementia patients are housed with other patients to provide temporary relief, is shown to be more effective than other forms of 'respite' care. 3. Standard and reliable outcome measures are needed to better determine which interventions are effective. This paper shows that, while no clear consensus on a particular measure exists, researchers are closing in on a reliable set of measures for evaluating the various aspects of dementia health: cognition, activities of daily living and behaviour. 4. This paper provides a comparative analysis of dementia care in 9 countries, with a particular focus on Alzheimer's disease. The purpose is to provide health policymakers with a better understanding of the variations in approaches to treating dementia that exist among OECD countries to help them better formulate health policies for treating dementia. DELSA/ELSA/WD/HEA(2004)4 5 RESUME 5. La démence et la maladie d'Alzheimer, sa manifestation la plus courante, sont des troubles complexes qui touchent principalement les personnes âgées. D'après les estimations, elles concernent quelque 10 millions d'individus dans les pays de l'OCDE. La complexité de ces pathologies rend extrêmement difficile toute méthode de soins et nécessite une prise en charge à la fois sociale et médicale. Le plus souvent, ces deux aspects de la prise en charge de la démence sont examinés séparément. La logique conceptuelle adoptée dans le présent document en propose une analyse globale et étudie leur interaction tout au long du continuum de soins. 6. Il n'existe aucun traitement efficace permettant d'arrêter la progression de la démence ; c'est la raison pour laquelle l'entourage familial joue un rôle fondamental dans sa prise en charge, dont il fait partie intégrante. Le présent document montre que les programmes visant à alléger le fardeau des personnes s'occupant d'un proche atteint de démence peuvent avoir des effets positifs sur la santé du patient comme de sa famille. En particulier, les unités de vie, dans lesquelles sont hébergées des personnes atteintes de démence, et qui visent à so...

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