Shared Decision Making About Housing Transitions for Persons With Dementia: A Four-Case Care Network Perspective

Persons with dementia (PWDs) and their caregivers often face difficult housing decisions, that is, decisions about their living arrangements, in which the perspectives of all members of the care network should be involved.

We performed a qualitative data analysis to assess the extent to which housing decisions for PWDs with their formal and informal caregivers correspond to an interprofessional shared decision making (IP-SDM) approach, and what light this approach sheds on their experiences with decision making.

We used the IP-SDM model to content-code and analyze data from 4 care networks, each consisting of a PWD, 2 informal and 2 formal caregivers.

Decision making in all networks corresponded to most IP-SDM elements, but never included all network members. Decision making was guided by the wishes of the PWD, but their actual involvement decreased over time.

Results show that while the IP-SDM model was helpful, the options change with cognitive decline and moving to a nursing home can become inevitable in spite of preferences.

Timely and honest communication helps to mitigate the distress of deciding against patient preferences, as could advance care planning about future housing transitions.