Effectiveness of advanced illness care teams for nursing home residents with dementia

Abstract

This study evaluated the effectiveness of advanced illness care teams (AICTs) for nursing home residents with advanced dementia. The AICTs used a holistic approach that focused on four domains: (1) medical, (2) meaningful activities, (3) psychological, and (4) behavioral. The authors recruited 118 residents in two nursing homes for this study and randomly assigned them to AICT or to usual care (UC). They assessed the participants before and after the completion of AICT or UC and found that as compared with UC, the AICTs were effective in reducing agitated behavior and pain but not depression. This is one of a few pioneering studies to examine the effectiveness of team care on the health and well-being of nursing home residents with advanced dementia. More research is needed about how to intervene effectively with this population and to overcome the methodological challenges associated with doing research on real-world clinical practice issues in busy and often understaffed nursing home settings.