The Development of a Comprehensive Medicines Management Approach for Persons with Dementia in Primary Caresor

The use of medicines in older people (conventionally designated as those over the age of 65 years) has
been described as the ‘single most important health care intervention in the industrialized world’. Persons
with dementia (PWD) are unique in terms of their medication needs compared with the general
older population; although they will also have co-morbid physical conditions and complex medication
regimens, their impaired cognition and communication skills generate challenges in medication adherence.
Such challenges may influence doctors’ prescribing behaviour and the quality of chronic illness management, for example, adherence to hypertensive guidelines. Surprisingly, however, there has been very limited research on prescribing, review, administration and adherence to medicines (all part of medicines management) in PWD, particularly for those residing in primary care. This project will seek to identify the most important aspects of medicines management from the perspectives of PWD, their carers and health care professionals, and to develop an intervention that will seek to optimise medicines management for PWD. The intervention will be based on a theoretical framework that seeks to identify what aspects of behaviour change should be targeted, and which are likely to result in a successful intervention. The successful candidate will gain skills in quantitative and qualitative research methodologies which are widely used in health services research.