Selecting Safety-Enhancing Tools For Persons Living With Dementia: A Framework For Caregivers

As life expectancies increase globally, the prevalence of age-related health conditions—notably dementia, and subsequently caregiving—will also rise. Caregiving increases physical and mental burden and can adversely impact caregivers' mental health, with financial and technological stress often clinically overlooked. Caregivers, who may control the family budget and spending, must navigate these costs, purchasing decisions, and time spent learning and implementing caregiver tools within their income and schedules. Clinicians may be well-placed to help caregivers navigate the practical elements of dementia care and to have tailored conversations around which products to use while not adding further caregiver burden. But with limited data on the actual value proposition of these tools, particularly for the more expensive and complex options, a framework is needed. We reviewed the evidence for a suite of tools designed to engage caregivers to help keep their loved one with dementia safe at home. We grouped these products into four categories: 1) medication management, 2) tracking/wandering prevention, 3) fall prevention, and 4) hazards in the home. We classified them according to a spectrum of increasing technological complexity and associated financial costs. Clinicians and geriatric case managers should be well-versed in the options we have collated to create personalized patient plans and help caregivers invest their time and money wisely. Beyond this work, more research is required to assess the effectiveness and value proposition of caregiver tools.