BACKGROUND
The number of Canadians with dementia is expected to rise to nearly 1 million individuals in the next decade. It is more than urgent to find a solution to monitor any unsafe behaviour that could be harmful to patients with dementia and the people around them such as other patients, professionals, or visitors. Current practice does not utilize systems to monitor behaviours of the patients with dementia (PwD) and send alerts when potential dangerous events occur. Events are reported randomly by non-professionals or when a professional notices an absence to a scheduled event.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the potential of implementing a detector of behavioural disturbances (DBD) in long-term care homes through a mapping of the perceptions of clinicians and staff members towards this technology.
METHODS
A focus group was conducted with 8 clinicians and staff members and 1 partner of a PwD.
RESULTS
Three themes emerged from a thematic analysis of the perspectives of the stakeholders: (A) capability of the DBD to detect relevant dementia-related behavioural disturbances, (B) characteristics of the DBD and clinical needs and (C) DBD modalities of use.
CONCLUSIONS
The results confirmed the adequacy of the DBD for their daily needs in terms of detecting hazardous behaviours or personal and interpersonal behavioural disturbances. The DBD has been considered useful and easy to use by the focus group participants, meaning that the DBD has a high level of usability.
CLINICALTRIAL
NA