Integrated Care Pathways

Atlantic grantees are involved in the establishment and promotion of integrated care pathways between community care, residential care and acute hospitals, making it more likely that home-care is prioritsed before other care options are considered, when it comes to decisions about the placement of people with dementia.

Moreover, creating an awareness of dementia within acute care settings and developing protocols for care relationships will lead to shorter stays in hospital and less costly treatment for people with dementia.

Key initiatives on advance care directives have also been developed for people with dementia. These have been supported by training programmes for staff in all care settings, leading to much more positive impacts on end-of-life decision making for people with dementia. Advance care directives are now becoming more common-place, making it more likely that people’s end of life preferences are known and fully respected.

“(An Advance Care Directive) is very good because it extends your autonomy. You can now keep control of part of your life that you may have lost control over previously. Perhaps what’s most important about them is that it takes the burden off your family. These are difficult decisions.”
Professor William Molloy, University College Cork, Centre of Gerontology and Rehabilitation