What do community-dwelling people with dementia need? A survey of those who are known to care and welfare services.
BACKGROUND
The aging society will bring an increase in the number of people with dementia living in the community. This will mean a greater demand on care and welfare services to deliver efficient and customized care, which requires a thorough understanding of subjective and objective care needs. This study aims to assess the needs of community-dwelling people with dementia as reported by themselves and by their informal carers. The study also aims to give insight into the service use and gaps between needs and the availability of services.


METHODS
236 community-dwelling people with dementia and 322 informal carers were interviewed separately. (Un)met needs were assessed using the Camberwell Assessment of Needs for the Elderly (CANE).


RESULTS
Most unmet needs were experienced in the domains of memory, information, company, psychological distress and daytime activities. People with dementia reported fewer (unmet) needs than their carers. Type and severity of dementia, living situation and informal carer characteristics were related to the number of reported needs.


CONCLUSIONS
This study showed a large number of unmet needs in dementia. Reasons for unmet needs are lack of knowledge about the existing service offer, a threshold to using services and insufficient services offer. These results provide a good starting point for improving community care for people with dementia.
van der Roest
Henriëtte G
HG
Department of Psychiatry/Alzheimer Center, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center/GGZ inGeest, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. hg.vanderroest@vumc.nl
Meiland
Franka J M
FJ
Comijs
Hannie C
HC
Derksen
Els
E
Jansen
Aaltje P D
AP
van Hout
Hein P J
HP
Jonker
Cees
C
Dröes
Rose-Marie
RM
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020380:Needs Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009426:Netherlands; D019727:Proxy / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012946:Social Welfare / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*