Alignment between informal carers and formal dementia care workers: Perspectives on community service delivery

The purpose of the presentation is to report the findings from a doctoral study that investigated capacity building and resilience for the community-based dementia care workforce. The findings are based on an exploration of informal carers’ and formal dementia care workers’ perspectives on current and future community service delivery. The study aimed to assess the alignment of care expectations for both types of carers. Sixty-one communitybased dementia carers (25 formal and 36 informal) were recruited from Tasmania, Australia. Workshop and interview data was analysed independently for the two carer groups. Common qualitative themes were identified for each group and compared.

A strong alignment between carers was found. Carers agreed that more information about the services available and better community understanding about dementia was needed. In addition, specialised training for workers was commonly reported by both carers. Carers also had a desire to improve the consistency of care for people with dementia, and sought more flexible services. Overall, informal and formal dementia carers aligned to show carers want improvements in access to information and support, workforce training and service delivery in the community setting. The findings suggest a broad approach should be applied to capacity building for community-based dementia care. This approach may include strategies that improve community dementia awareness, workforce skills and organisational systems to reform future services.