The purpose of this study was to clarify the specialized home care support provided by Dementia-related Disease Medical Center (Medical Center)and their collaboration with Community General Support Center(General Center).
We targeted the expert staff of both Center in Kumamoto Prefecture. Semi-structured interviews were performed and data were analyzed in a qualitative and descriptive way. The extracted home care supports were triage, handing over patients to Medical Center, timely intervention, construction of community cooperation system, expert medical care, arrangement for patient’s transition to home, and assistance to select a best living place. Emerged items on collaboration with General Center were categorized into three;the roles of Medical Center, construction of day-to-day cooperation between Medical Center and General Center, the role of General Center.
It was revealed that Medical Center provides home care support to people with dementia by playing their specialized roles such as triage, timely intervention, and expert medical care, as well as construction of community cooperation system. For the achievement of the required home care support, it is important that Medical Center pursues their specialized and expected roles. This study suggests that a policy measure is necessary to assist General Center to develop a community cooperation system.
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