Alzheimer's Association Launches Comprehensive Dementia Care Practice Recommendations

The Alzheimer's Association on Jan. 18 issued new dementia care practice recommendations to help nursing communities, assisted living communities, and other long-term care and community care providers provide the best quality, person-centered care for people with Alzheimer's and other dementias. The recommendations will be published as a supplement to the February issue of The Gerontologist . The document specifies 56 recommendations across 10 content areas, based on the fundamentals of person-centered care. They aim to better define quality care across all care environments and throughout the progress of the disease. The recommendations are designed for professional care providers who work with persons living with dementia and their families in long-term and community-based care settings. The recommendations deliver guidance to community-based and residential care providers on detection and diagnosis and continuing medical management, and they are crafted specifically for non-physician care providers and address what they can do to help with these important aspects of holistic, person-centered dementia care. "Detection and diagnosis, and medical management are critical, vital areas of care," says the Alzheimer's Association's Sam Fazio. "While clinicians must continue to take a lead role in these areas, there are important contributions dementia care providers can make to improve outcomes in these areas. Our recommendations outline appropriate actions dementia care providers can make to complement and enhance the work clinicians are doing. Having both groups focus on these critical areas will result in better care for people struggling with this disease."