Specialist Dementia Care for Severe Behaviours
A research collaboration between the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), UNSW Sydney and The Dementia Centre, HammondCare, has retrospectively reviewed the effectiveness of Special Dementia Care Programmes, for people with very severe behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia.
Behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) – which include hallucinations, anxiety, agitation, aggression, apathy and depression – occur in up to 90% of people living with dementia. These symptoms occur with greater frequency as the disease progresses.
It is estimated that less than 10% of Australians living with dementia will demonstrate aggressive behaviours that are deemed unmanageable in mainstream care, and only 1% will manifest very severe symptoms, indicating the necessity for specialist programmes to stabilise and reduce symptoms over time to enable transition back to a less intensive care setting.