Do interventions with staff in long-term residential facilities improve quality of care or quality of life for people with dementia? A systematic review of the evidence.

Abstract

The review by Bird and colleagues (2016), published in this issue of International Psychogeriatrics, is notable for jointly examining the effect of dementia care interventions on both staff and resident quality outcomes. This is an important contribution to improving dementia care because it recognizes the dynamic and dyadic relationship between residents and their caregivers in residential settings. While evidence exists on the dyadic effect of family caregiver intervention on dementia patient outcomes (Gitlin and Hodgson, 2015), less attention has been given to formal caregivers in institutional settings (Dellefield et al., 2015).