Empowerment is important for people with dementia in order to remain engaged with significant others, and to remain involved in society and the decision-making process regarding their care and support. Unfortunately, at present, effective empowerment interventions for people with dementia appear to be scarce, both in the Netherlands and internationally. This Dutch project aims to develop an effective empowerment intervention, which is applicable for people with dementia at home as well as in care homes. Together with input of persons with dementia and carers, the project is looking at the effective and useful elements of existing empowerment interventions and to adapt an existing empowerment intervention for people with young-onset dementia (www.spankrachtbijdementie.nl - only in Dutch), to suit the needs of older people with dementia. They are integrating information from: a European survey, carried out in collaboration with Alzheimer Europe; focus-group meetings with people with dementia, family caregivers and health care professionals; and a literature review on empowerment in people with dementia.
This study is funded by the programme Memorabel of ZonMw and Deltaplan Dementie of Alzheimer Nederland.
charlotte.vancorven@radboudumc.nl
