Video interview: PD Dr. Bernhard Michalowsky on long-term results of Dementia Care Management

The DZNE trains specialists to help care for people with dementia. Thanks to their experience and strong networks, the quality of life can be significantly improved - for patients as well as for their relatives.

Someone has to keep an overview when a patient develops dementia: someone who coordinates treatment with primary care physicians and specialists, who informs the nursing staff and knows which documents are necessary for insurance companies and which aids make everyday life easier. Being a networker, coordinator and, above all, helper - that is the role of Dementia Care Managers , who are being trained at the DZNE. The concept of Dementia Care Managers has been developed by researchers at the DZNE site Rostock/Greifswald. Video is German only.

It all started with a study in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which also received a lot of international attention: In DelpHi-MV, the researchers wanted to find out how patient care can be improved. The experiences and suggestions of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, patients and relatives were incorporated. Over a period of years, they developed and tested the concept of Dementia Care Management (DCM), which is intended to reduce the burden on all those involved - and make the lives of those in need of care and their relatives more worth living. This study has resulted in a concrete training program in which Dementia Care Managers are trained. This highly complex training program comprises more than 600 hours of theory and practice and has since produced the first care professionals certified as Dementia Care Managers.

Following several positive interim results, a research team led by PD Dr. Dr. Bernhard Michalowsky from the DZNE Greifswald has now been able to conclusively prove how helpful Dementia Care Management actually is with a final long-term study. The findings have been published in the scientific journal JAMA Network Open.