Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors

Area of Science:

• Occupational therapy
• Gerontology
• Caregiver support

Background:

• Informal caregivers, or care partners, assist people with dementia (PwD) in daily activities, often without formal training.
• Caregiving for PwD presents significant emotional, physical, financial, and occupational challenges for informal caregivers.
• Current occupational therapy (OT) literature inadequately defines the role of OT in supporting informal caregivers of PwD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To clarify the role of occupational therapy (OT) in supporting informal caregivers of people with dementia (PwD).
• To address the gap in understanding how OT can assist the care partner dyad in dementia care.

Main Methods:

• A concept analysis using Walker and Avant's eight-step approach was employed.
• Literature on OT interventions for caregivers of PwD was reviewed.
• The Model of Human Occupation framework was utilized to structure case examples.

Main Results:

• Defining attributes of OT's role with informal caregivers of PwD were identified.
• Data on OT treatment of the care partner dyad was synthesized from reviewed literature.
• Model and contrary cases illustrated OT's role in supporting the care partner dyad.

Conclusions:

• The role of OT involves identifying participation barriers and performance challenges for caregivers.
• OT interventions should aim to enable participation and enhance occupational performance for both PwD and their care partners.
• Adopting a dyadic approach in OT enhances service delivery for people with dementia and their informal caregivers.