Dementia Care and Quality of Life in Assisted Living and Nursing Homes: Perspectives of the Alzheimer's Association

Abstract

In funding the Collaborative Studies of LongTerm Care (CS-LTC) Dementia Care study that is the basis for most of the articles in this special issue of The Gerontologist, the Alzheimer’s Association hoped to learn more about measuring quality of life in people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. The Association also hoped to learn about care practices and other factors associated with quality of life to support our efforts to develop guidelines for dementia care in assisted living and nursing homes. The study findings, as reported in this issue, exceeded our expectations. The inclusion of findings on the same topics from studies funded by the National Institute on Aging, Mather Institute on Aging, and others adds to the value of the special issue, making it a source of important new knowledge about Alzheimer’s and dementia care. The CS-LTC Dementia Care study involved several firsts for the Alzheimer’s Association. In 2000, after the Association’s Medical and Scientific Advisory Board decided to fund Dr. Sheryl Zimmerman’s investigator-initiated proposal for a study of quality dementia care in assisted living, another Association division, the Program and Community Services Division, decided to add substantial funding to expand the scope of the study. This was the first time in the history of the Alzheimer’s Association that a part of the organization other than the research grants program chose to fund a team of researchers. In another first, we asked Dr. Zimmerman if her research team would be willing to accommodate a liaison panel, a group of Alzheimer’s Association chapter staff and national board members that we thought would increase our understanding of the study and its implications for policy and practice. The research team was willing and actually gave us much more than we requested. The liaison panel participated in three 2-day meetings with the research team and helped to identify areas of care for special attention in the study and the later analysis of its findings. Having the liaison panel required a commitment of time and resources from the panel members, the research team, and national Association