Discussion Guide: Dementia and Neuropsychiatric Disturbances-Discussion Guide for Dementia and Neuropsychiatric Disturbances Course

Discussion Guide for Dementia and Neuropsychiatric Disturbances Course

Pdf Summary

The Home Centered Care Institute (HCCI) provides a discussion guide aimed at helping facilitators lead group discussions on managing patients with dementia and neuropsychiatric disturbances in home-based primary care (HBPC) settings. This guide supports those who completed the HCCI's online course on this topic and details strategies for effective discussion management. The purpose is to enhance HBPC providers' ability to treat these patients by focusing on several key learning objectives, including understanding dementia types and stages, treatment goals for homebound patients, identifying triggers for neuropsychiatric problems, and exploring both pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches.<br /><br />The guide outlines an agenda for a 60-minute discussion, covering topics such as the introduction, different types of dementia, care challenges, evaluation steps, treatment interventions, and caregiver support. It includes prompts for each topic to facilitate in-depth dialogue among participants.<br /><br />The discussion begins with an introduction (5 mins) to contextualize the patients' information and highlight unique challenges in the HBPC setting. It then moves to discussing types of dementia (5 mins), where participants explore common forms like Alzheimer’s and less common types like Lewy body dementia, sharing diagnostic challenges and symptoms.<br /><br />Care challenges (5 mins) is another focus, where participants compare HBPC to inpatient settings, discuss interdisciplinary team roles, and identify overlooked team members. The evaluation steps (5 mins) topic encourages small group discussions on critical considerations and tools for evaluating patients with dementia.<br /><br />Non-pharmacologic (5 mins) and pharmacologic (10 mins) interventions are discussed next, prompting participants to share experiences and additional methods outside those covered in the course. Finally, addressing caregiver support (5 mins) examines tools like the Zarit Burden Interview and community resources to aid caregivers.<br /><br />The debrief (5 mins) concludes the discussion by encouraging participants to commit to actionable next steps and share ideas for implementing what they've learned. This structured approach is designed to enhance the treatment and support of dementia patients within HBPC contexts.

Keywords

Home Centered Care Institute

HCCI

dementia

neuropsychiatric disturbances

home-based primary care

HBPC

discussion guide

treatment interventions

caregiver support

non-pharmacological approaches