An Innovative Person-Centered Model for Provision of Mental, Social and Medical Care for People Living with Dementia

Abstract

Globally there is an increased digitalization going on with an increasing number of people having access to the internet, having smartphones and now also in many countries being expected to access health-related information and schedule appointments through websites, apps or web-based portals. Healthcare providers have also adopted this with an increasing number of public or private organizations providing web-based portals as well as app interfaces to some of the largest electronic healthcare systems. The benefit of this is easier access, more efficient provision of services, increased transparency and improved workflows. This may increase the population’s capability to manage their conditions and reduce the contacts to, thereby burdening healthcare professionals. But not all will be able to benefit from this digital (r)evolution. Those who will not be able to include people with dementia. For people with dementia to also be able to take advantage of digital health tools and services, it will require planning and involvement of caregivers. In 2017, we presented the Epital Care Model as a framework to organize an efficient people-centered cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral way to organize activities, roles, responsibilities and describe geographical locations and used technologies in response to individuals’ specific diagnoses and everyday changes in their condition. In 2021, an EU-funded project was initiated to investigate how living labs and scaling up could be done building upon the ECM. One of the living labs was organized around an organization providing care to PWD in Netherlands. In the period 2021 to 2024, we have tried to identify ways for how the ECM could be used to digitally enable the services provided by the organization. In 2022, the care organization tanteLouise started a project originally named Daycare Centre2.0 (now called “Van Thuis Uit ” meaning “From Home”), together with healthcare insurance company CZ , and developed a model for onboarding people with dementia and introducing them to specific interventions based on their personal goals and needs. We here present how the ECM and the “Van Thuis Uit ” can be mapped within each other to create synergy in creating a healthcare setting for people with dementia. This work may serve as a model for other conditions, where individuals are likely to need more intensive support from their informal caregivers due to a relatively rapid progression of the condition or development of severe impairments. Examples here can be neurologic conditions such as multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or the final stage of conditions that require palliation.