title: Dementia case management through the eyes of informal carers: A national evaluation study.
abstract: This paper focuses on the evaluation of dementia case management in the Netherlands, as well as factors associated with positive evaluations of informal caregivers. A survey was completed by 554 informal carers. The majority of the informal carers were older (69% was 55+), and female (73%), and often concerned the partner or adult children of the person with dementia. Eighty percent indicated that the contact with the case manager facilitated their role as informal carer, while 95% or more stated that the case manager showed sufficient understanding, allowed enough space to decide together on how to approach problems in the care, took time to listen to their story, gave sufficient attention to and showed interest in their relative, took their schedule into account and/or kept appointments. Contrary to the expectations, multilevel analyses did not show association between informal caregivers' care burden and the evaluation of case management. Neither were the period living with dementia and the number of personal contacts with the case manager associated with the evaluations of informal caregivers. However, being the partner of the patient was significantly related ( p < 0.05) to a positive overall evaluation by informal carers. These results suggest that sufficient case management resources should be offered and targeted especially towards partners of people with dementia.
authors.affiliation: NIVEL, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Public and Occupational Health, EMGO+, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Anneke L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Francke
authors.affiliation: NIVEL, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Renate
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Verkaik
authors.affiliation: NIVEL, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Peeters
authors.affiliation: NIVEL, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Spreeuwenberg
authors.affiliation: Netherlands Institute for Mental Health and Addiction (Trimbos Institute), Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jacomine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: de Lange
authors.affiliation: Netherlands Institute for Mental Health and Addiction (Trimbos Institute), Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Clinical Psychology, EMGO+, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Anne Margriet
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Pot
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D019090:Case Management / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003704:Dementia / Q000451:nursing*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: burden; case management; dementia; informal caregivers; satisfaction