Dementia Care in Nursing Homes Requires a Multidisciplinary Approach

Dementia care in nursing homes involves care for very frail and disabled older residents, suffering from complex problems in various domains of life. These problems require an integrated approach, focusing on the resident as a human being with a disease who needs high-quality professional care which contributes to his or her quality of life and also supports the family and other informal caregivers. To enable an integrated approach, multidisciplinary teamwork is necessary. Offering care from a multidisciplinary approach puts challenges on the organization of care, more specifically on the share each healthcare professional gets in the care process, on the related mutual agreements between different healthcare professionals and on their mutual communication. In the near future, more attention must be paid as well to the equal role that residents and family caregivers themselves may play in this process of multidisciplinary care.