Authors' objectives:

To develop and analyze Federal policy options for a system to help locate and arrange appropriate services for people with dementia.

Authors' results and conclusions: Families and others often have great difficulty locating and arranging appropriate services for a person with dementia. This difficulty reflects the insufficient availability of some services, lack of funding for services, the complexity and fragmentation of services at the community level, the difficulty of obtaining accurate information about services, the difficulty of coordinating the services of multiple providers, and the characteristics, feelings, and perceptions of some people with dementia and some family members that make them reluctant to use services.

Authors' recommendations: An effective system to link people with dementia to services has four components: public education, information and referral, case management, outreach. Congress could mandate the establishment of such a system. Relevant policy considerations are whether the system should serve only people with dementia or other people who need long-term care as well; whether it should be composed of only one type of agency or several types of agencies nationwide; whether it should also provide services, and whether it should assure the quality of the services to which it refers patients and families. Other output or dissemination activity: A demonstration project was funded. It has been reauthorized twice. Approximately 15 states are receiving federal funds to develop systems to link people with services.

Authors' methods: Review

Project Status: Completed

URL for project: http://www.wws.princeton.edu:80/~ota/ns20/pubs_f.html

Year Published: 1990

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Not Assigned

Country: United States

Organisation Name: U. S. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment

Copyright: Office of Technology Assessment