Dementia in Europe yearbook 2014 : national care pathways for people with dementia living at home

Abstract

This comparative report on national care pathways for people with dementia living at home has been produced as part of the 2014 Work Plan of Alzheimer Europe, which has received funding from the European Union in the framework of the Health Programme. Decisions about the broad areas to be addressed were informed by a literature review on the topic. Agreement on the specific sections to be included for each area was reached in a meeting with 16 Alzheimer Europe (AE) member associations at the beginning of 2014. Based on this, a questionnaire was drafted and later reviewed by four members of the group. The final questionnaire was sent out to all AE members. In addition, in countries where AE has no member (i.e. Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia), relevant informants were identified and invited to participate. 29 AE member associations and two external experts returned the questionnaires1. Questionnaires had been completed by the national organisation and, whenever necessary, with the aid of relevant national experts in the field of social policy, medicine and social support2. Organisations were contacted again when necessary to clarify certain issues and information was transferred into a database and analysed. The comparative report was sent to all participating organisations for final approval prior to publication. In addition to this comparative report, a national report for each country has been produced. These national reports are available to the public on the Alzheimer Europe website (http://www.alzheimer-europe.org).