Nurse or Allied Health-Led Models of Transitional Dementia Care in Australia: A Scoping Review

It is important to understand the range of transitional care models that support people with dementia who have complex health needs. This is to avoid unnecessary hospitalisations, to maximise any benefits in care transfers and, may increase access to higher quality care and reduce the incidence of low value care. A scoping review of peer-reviewed literature was conducted to investigate and summarise nurse or allied health-led models of transitional dementia care in Australia. Nurse and allied health-led transitional care models for older people and people with dementia included models that emphasised community services, hospital avoidance, out-reach to residential care, emergency department streamlining, intensive dementia support, or a combination (n = 14). Health outcomes reported included decreased presentations, length of stay and costs in emergency departments; reduction in hospital admissions and in medication use and increase in non-pharmacological interventions. Future models of nurse or allied health-led care should emphasise the need for localised relational approaches by the transitional staff to support continuity of care as crucial aspects for behavioural and gerontological transitional care.