Home Based Interventions Targeting Persons with Dementia: What Is the Evidence and Where Do We Go from Here?
Most persons with dementia live at home either alone or with family members over the course of this long, progressive and terminal condition. With disease progression, most persons will experience a wide range of health and quality of life challenges that remain unaddressed by the health care system. However, common symptoms and concerns such as pain, sleep disturbances, infections, behavioral symptoms, fall risk, home hazards, distressed families, are all amenable to intervention and hence improvement. This chapter provides a systematic review of the extant research on home based interventions that are designed to improve the quality of life of individuals living with dementia. We evaluate the relative merits and limitations of interventions tested in randomized trials in order to offer suggestions for advancements in this area. Given the long trajectory of dementia and that most persons live and age at home in their communities with this condition, developing, testing and implementing approaches to improving quality of life related outcomes in the home setting is of utmost importance.