Long-term dementia care

Dementia is a progressive disease with a mean duration of 8 years. Most dementia patients live in their own homes but a part of them has to be institutionalized and ultimately die in a long-term care facility. General practitioners, elderly care physicians and other professionals face many challenges in the care of these dementia patients. Most patients with dementia have late onset dementia, but in a small part dementia start before the age of 65 years, so called young onset dementia.

This program focuses on the long-term course of late and young onset dementia in patients that are community-dwelling or are institutionalized.

Issues that are addressed are:

1. Mental health issues like challenging behavior, psychosocial interventions and appropriateness of psychotropic drug use;
2. Palliative care issues like survival, advance care planning, end-of life decision-making;
3. Multimorbidity;
4. Service-provision, care models in long-term care facilities and implementation on care-programs