None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
The availability and accessibility of post-diagnostic support for people living with dementia and their carers are of central importance in dementia care. People with dementia and their carers benefit from timely access to emotional and practical support, lifestyle advice, and meaningful activities to maximise their quality of life and potentially delay cognitive decline. Allied health professionals at Canberra Health Services at the University of Canberra Hospital and the University of Canberra have designed an evidence-based 12-week multi-component program, tailored to people with dementia and their carers, which includes: physical activity, social engagement, nutrition assessment, education and capacity building. The team has engaged with Dementia Australia advocates to refine the program and set priorities for research. The research study will assess the value of a pilot version of this multi-component dementia support program, measure impact and effectiveness for people with dementia and their carers. If shown to be successful, the multi-component program could become part of standard care in the ACT region and provide a replicable model of comprehensive post-diagnostic services for dementia care Australia-wide.
Interventions
The Sustainable Personalised Interventions for Cognition, Care, and Engagement (SPICE) Program aims to address the need for post diagnostic support for people newly diagnosed with dementia and their carers. The intervention will be delivered by allied health professionals across two, 2.5 hour visits to the University of Canberra Hospital twice per week, and individual appointments for the nutrition assessment and COPE program. The intervention includes twelve weeks of active and practical suppor
The Sustainable Personalised Interventions for Cognition, Care, and Engagement (SPICE) Program aims to address the need for post diagnostic support for people newly diagnosed with dementia and their carers. The intervention will be delivered by allied health professionals across two, 2.5 hour visits to the University of Canberra Hospital twice per week, and individual appointments for the nutrition assessment and COPE program. The intervention includes twelve weeks of active and practical support including: 1. Physical activity (2/week for 1 hour): Participants engage in strength, mobility and aerobic exercises selected and tailored to their abilities. The circuit involves a personalised approach to physical activity in a group setting as the person with dementia (and their carer if they chose to participate) perform targeted balance, lower and upper limb strength, dual tasking, and cardiovascular fitness exercises. Some exercises also focus on maintaining bone strength and density through high-impact actions. 2. Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (2/week for 1 hour): An evidence-based non-medical therapy group intervention that is designed to encourage cognitive activity through a series of themed activities. The themes include storytelling, word games, and reminiscence. 3. Social, Emotional, and Resilience Education and Capacity Building program (1/week for one hour): Carers participate in a psychoeducational group intervention. This aims to provide actionable information to improve the quality of life for both the carer and the person with dementia as well as improve the self-efficacy of the carer through mindfulness practices. The program is delivered by a team of clinicians from clinical psychology, neuropsychology, social work, speech pathology, pharmacy, and occupational therapy. The intervention is designed based on previous literature and resources are provided by each clinician with respect to their area of focus each week. 4. Nutrition assessment and consultation (3 appointments in first 6 weeks; 1 hour long appointment, and 2 30 minute appointments): Nutrition evaluation and dietary advice for the person with dementia is provided and delivered by the University of Canberra Dietetics Clinic. This consists of a nutritional evaluation, nutritional counselling, and a nutritional review session. One counselling session is conducted online to discuss foods already in the home. 5. Care of People with Dementia in their Environments (COPE) program (1/week * 10 appointments for 1 hour): The COPE program is a structured intervention that involves 10 sessions scheduled in the participant’s home, delivered by a COPE-trained occupational therapist. These focus on identifying meaningful engagement opportunities as well as further supporting carers to implement strategies for managing identified care challenges. This component aims to improve both carer and the person with dementia’s functional capacity, engagement, and quality of life. Attendance to each intervention component is tracked across the study.
Sponsors
University of Canberra
Study design
Allocation
Non-randomised trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Blinded (masking used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Eligible participants will be people with dementia (all forms) and their carer (as nominated by the person with dementia). Participants will be living independently in the community and will be recruited from within the ACT. People with dementia will be required to participate with a carer. The carer may be male or female, must be aged over 18 years, and providing ongoing support to the person with dementia. Potential participants will be screened using the Clinical Dementia Rating scale (CDR). Participants with mild to moderate scores of between 0.5 and 2 will be eligible to participate. Participants need to be willing to attend for greater than 10 weeks (i,e. do not have a holiday planned).
Exclusion criteria
People with dementia may be excluded if they are unable to engage in, or requires 1:1 support for group participation due to disruptive behaviours and/or wandering behaviour, or severely impaired hearing or vision. Participants with a CDR score of 0 and 3 will be excluded. People with dementia who do not have a carer or support person willing to participate in required program components will be excluded.
Outcome results
None listed