Professor Assumpta Ryan
Ulster University
United Kingdom
A feasibility study of facilitated reminiscence for people with dementia
PHA/The Atlantic Philanthropies (HSCNI)
439,416
02/03/2015
2.5
The term ‘medicines management’ usually means the prescribing, review, administration and adherence (compliance) associated with medicines. We already know that older people may continue to receive medicines that may not be appropriate, without any review and their adherence (compliance) with treatment may be poor. However, in persons with dementia (PWD), very little is known about the type of medicines they are prescribed, the quality of the prescribing and adherence with medicines. The little research which has been done has been conducted in care homes. In this project, we will examine the prescribing, review and administration of medicines (including adherence) in PWD who live in their own homes. We will do this by undertaking a three-phase project. The first phase will look at what medicines are used by PWD who are being prescribed for by a general practitioner (GP). This information will be taken from a database that is held by Business Services Organisation (BSO), which processes all prescriptions that are dispensed by community pharmacists in N. Ireland. We will look at what is being prescribed and we will use a tool that will help us assess the quality of that prescribing. In the second phase, we will invite PWD carers, GPs and community pharmacists to take part in an interview to discuss medicines management and what is important from their point of view. We will analyse the content of the interviews to find out what might be helpful in medicines managements for PWD and what might be a problem. From these results, we will develop an approach to devise a way in which GPs, community pharmacists, PWD and carers can work together to improve medicines management. In the final phase of the project, we will try this approach in a small number of GP practices and community pharmacies.