Innes, Anthea

PURPOSE: The perspectives of people with dementia and their care partners regarding "extra care" housing are currently unknown. The purpose of this paper is to report findings of a consultation study exploring the perceived barriers and facilitators of a relocation to extra care housing, from the perspective of people living with dementia, and their care partners. DESIGN/METHOOLOGY/APPROACH: Fieldwork consisted of paired or 1-1 interviews and small focus groups with potential users of an alternative model of extra care support for people living with dementia in the South of England.

The authors review current research on provision of services to older people and their carers in remote and rural areas across the UK, with specific reference to Scotland. They consider the policy implications for dementia services in this context.

This paper discusses the experiences of dementia family caregivers in Malta. The study design was essentially exploratory as this is the first funded social research on dementia in the island of Malta. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted in October 2008 with 17 caregivers. Identification of caregivers was through their relatives’ attendance at a hospital based outpatient memory clinic. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and when required, phrases were translated from Maltese to English.

Objectives: To report on the views of people with dementia who live in care homes and their family carers on aspects of design that are important to them, and discuss these in relation to developing physical care environments that respond to the wishes of people with dementia and their family carers.