Assessment, diagnosis, care and support for people with dementia and their carers: a national clinical guideline.

SCOTTISH INTERCOLLEGIATE GUIDELINES NETWORK (SIGN)

Abstract

This guideline provides recommendations based on current evidence for best practice in the assessment, care and support of adults with dementia. The guideline applies to all settings, including home, long-term care, care homes, hospital, hospice, day-care centres and primary care. Personcentred care should be the focus of the implementation of this guideline. The focus for this guideline is adults living with dementia. Older people with dementia represent the majority of people living with dementia in Scotland, however young-onset dementia in adults is also included. The guideline covers the adult population, as a true dementia in children (ie an incident, progressive, neurodegenerative disorder) is extremely rare. There are specific subgroups of the dementia population and types of dementia that have highly specialist needs, and the guideline development group agreed that covering these groups in this guideline would not provide the in-depth information required to support such groups. Two examples are dementia in people with learning disabilities and those with alcohol-related dementia. Sources of further information about dementia in people with learning disabilities are listed in section 9.4. Prevention of dementia is a rapidly evolving area and would need its own guidance to do justice to the field, and as such was also considered by the guideline development group to be out of scope. Perspectives were sought from stakeholders across Scotland, including people living with dementia and their carers, on the remit of the guideline. Taking these into account the guideline development group agreed to prioritise areas where specific guidance was needed for Scotland.

Citation

SCOTTISH INTERCOLLEGIATE GUIDELINES NETWORK (SIGN). 2023. Assessment, diagnosis, care and support for people with dementia and their carers: a national clinical guideline. SIGN, 168. Edinburgh: SIGN [online]. Available from: https://www.sign.ac.uk/media/2157/sign-168-dementia.pdf

• Report Type: Project Report
• Online Publication Date: Nov 30, 2023
• Publication Date: Nov 30, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jul 22, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 22, 2024
• Publisher: Healthcare Improvement Scotland
• Series Title: SIGN publication
• Series Number: 168
• Keywords: Dementia; Carers; Older people; Alzheimer's; Guidelines
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2418550
• Publisher URL: https://www.sign.ac.uk/our-guidelines/assessment-diagnosis-care-and-support-for-people-with-dementia-and-their-carers/
• Related Public URLs: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2418495 (Journal article of a summary of the guidelines)