Caregiver Perspectives on Safety in Home Dementia Care

Abstract

Home safety is a significant problem for caregivers of people with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. This focus group study is designed to gain insight into caregivers' experiences of managing safety issues and to explore application of the transtheoretical model of health behavior change (TTM) to this problem, toward development of interventions to improve safety care. Caregivers identified safety problems and management strategies, as well as barriers and factors facilitating management, that can help guide the development of interventions. Caregivers described different stages of adopting actions to prevent accidents and injuries consistent with the TTM. The TTM warrants further study for understanding how to help caregivers make changes to promote safe care.