Life at the border line: Coordination of care for people with dementia in the home with special regime
Abstract
Continuity and coordination of health and social services are considered prerequisites of quality care for people living with dementia and their families. Nevertheless, in the Czech Republic, problems with availability and fragmentation of services remain.
Difficulties with availability and coordination of care in residential services could be documented on examples from the practice of care in "homes with special regime". Informal as well as formal carers agree that support of a qualified care coordinator might be needed for the whole duration of disease trajectory.
Their conviction is supported by results of studies done in West European countries, which show that well designed and coordinated care in the form of case management not only improves quality of life of both people with dementia and their carers, but also leads to more efficient use of the long term care resources. Therefore, possibilities for implementation of case management in community care and residential social and health care services for people living with dementia should be further investigated.