The Role of Occupational Therapy in the Care of Informal Caregivers of People With Dementia: A Concept Analysis

Authors

Ashley M. Taylor, University of St. Augustine for Health SciencesFollow
Steven M. Gerardi, University of St. Augustine for Health SciencesFollow
Elizabeth DeLuca-Berg, University of St. Augustine for Health SciencesFollow

Files

Description

Informal caregivers (care partners) are people, such as family members, who provide care to those who cannot care for themselves, including people with dementia (PwD). Care partners assist PwD in their daily occupations, often without training. Caring for PwD can lead to emotional, physical, financial, and occupational challenges for care partners. Occupational therapy (OT) has a role to play in the care of PwD. However, if clinicians do not operate from a dyadic model, care partners’ needs may be overlooked. Problem: Although addressing the care partner dyad is important to the delivery of OT, the role of OT in the care of informal caregivers of PwD is not well articulated in the OT literature, which makes it difficult for OT practitioners to provide optimal care. Clarifying this concept can improve the delivery of OT services for the care partner-PWD dyad. Purpose: The purpose of this project was to conduct a concept analysis on the role of OT in the care of informal caregivers of PwD. Results: The role of OT with informal caregivers of PwD is to identify barriers to participation and challenges to effective occupational performance with the care partner-PWD dyad, and to implement interventions to enable participation and enhance performance. They key attributes of this role are a) viewing the care partner-PWD dyad as the “client”, b) taking a dyadic approach to the OT process, c) providing caregiver education and training, d) addressing home safety and environmental modification, e) long term planning, and f) interdisciplinary care coordination.

Publication Date

Spring 4-9-2025

Publisher

University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences

Keywords

Occupational therapy, Dementia, Caregiver, Care partner, Patient-caregiver dyad

Medical Subject Headings

Caregivers, Occupational therapy, Family, Health education, Dementia

Disciplines

Occupational Therapy

Comments

Poster presented at the in-person OTD Capstone Symposium, held at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences on April 24, 2025.

Recommended Citation

Taylor, A. M., Gerardi, S. M., & DeLuca-Berg, E. (2025, April 9). The Role of Occupational Therapy in the Care of Informal Caregivers of People With Dementia: A Concept Analysis. Poster presented at the Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium, University of St Augustine for Health Sciences. Retrieved from https://soar.usa.edu/otdcapstonesspring2025/74

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.