Dissemination and implementation of strategy adoption guidelines for persons with dementia at risk of getting lost

Abstract

Objectives

To address risks associated with critical dementia-related wandering, three guidelines were developed for use by persons living with dementia, their care partners, and professional staff, to choose wander-management strategies. This evidence-based research incorporates knowledge mobilization approaches that directly involve the three types of stakeholders in using the guidelines in the real world. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the knowledge translation of three guidelines on wander-management strategies, and to further deploy these guidelines to organizations across Canada.

Methods

Steering committees across Canada were established for consultation. Guidelines were then shared among these organizations via Google slides. Health professionals, caregivers, community organizations and persons living with dementia completed an online survey (via Google) or paper-based survey to provide feedback on the guidelines. The guidelines were then translated from English to French using a forward-translation method.

Results

The guidelines were adopted across ten organizations in four Canadian provinces. Adoption included introduction and formal training to staff. It took 22 months from the development of the guidelines to the dissemination and launch of the guidelines to the organizations. Participants (n = 73) were very satisfied with the developed guidelines and agreed they were easy to navigate, easy to understand, and the information provided was useful.

Conclusions

A stakeholder-driven approach used for guideline development and dissemination were successful methods for minimizing the time for this work to become practice. This in addition to the use of online platforms can replace conventional methods which take longer and become quickly outdated.

Keywords:

• Translational research
• dementia
• Alzheimer’s disease
• wandering
• guidelines

Acknowledgements

The first author received support the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital through the Dr. Peter N. McCracken Legacy Scholarship, Thelma R. Scambler scholarship, Gyro Club of Edmonton Graduate Scholarship, and the Alberta Association on Gerontology Edmonton Chapter and Provincial Student Awards. Second, the first author would like to thank the Alzheimer Society of Ontario and the Calgary Coordinated Response to Missing Seniors for their continual support in this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by AGE-WELL Network of Centres of Excellence.