Developing the NICE/SCIE Guidelines for Dementia Care: The Challenges of Enhancing the Evidence Base for Social and Health Care

Abstract

Internationally, interest is developing in the challenges of developing evidence-based guidelines for social work practice. The paper reports on the process of establishing the UK’s first joint health and social care evidence-based practice guideline, which is in dementia care. The paper addresses the methodological and procedural challenges of reviewing, meta-analysing and synthesizing knowledge for health and social care given the contrasting histories of the two sectors in relation to the emergence of evidence-based practice. Dementia care is a complex domain within which social and clinical perspectives intersect, reinforcing the desirability of producing ‘joined up’ health and social care practice guidelines that are relevant to integrated services. It is suggested that the exemplar of producing a joint health and social care guideline for dementia may be a model for future development of practice guidelines. Some of the main recommendations are presented to illustrate the character of the joint guideline, lessons are drawn for future guideline development, and implications for policy and practice implementation are considered.