Alzheimers Disease & Dementia

Biography

Biography: Jun-Ah Song

Abstract

It is important for health professionals to teach family caregivers of persons with dementia about how to deal with Behavioral Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) well. However, little information is available about what aspects exactly they need to learn to be competent in managing BPSD. The purpose of this study was to explore attributes of the concept of family caregiver’s competence for managing BPSD (CM-BPSD). A rapid realist review was conducted to synthesize the complex range of concepts and define attributes of the family caregiver’s CM-BPSD from the comprehensive literature. Three databases were used including MEDLINE, Embase and CINAHL. The search terms used were dementia, caregiver, coping (managing) and competence. The selection criteria were articles being published in English between 1990 and 2017 and considered appropriate for the topic. Among the 235 articles, 89 were excluded for duplication and six for not being written in English. From the concept synthesis of competence for managing, four dimensions were defined: Judging, setting the direction, adjusting and reflecting. For the concept of family caregiver’s CM-BPSD, eleven attributes were derived. Findings of this study suggest that the concept of family caregiver’s CM-BPSD should reflect the procedural aspect. Reflecting can be considered as a meta-competence because it may influence the other three phases of managing BPSD. A field study would be of great value to clarify the attributes of the concept.