Social care and support needs of community-dwelling people with dementia and concurrent visual impairment.

Abstract

Objectives: Little is known about the needs of people who have both dementia and visual impairment. This study explored the social care and support needs of people with dementia and concurrent visual impairment, and the barriers and facilitators for meeting these needs. Method: Twenty-six semi-structured interviews were conducted: 21 joint interviews with the person with dementia and visual impairment and their family member / paid carer; and 5 individual interviews with either the person with dementia and visual impairment (n=4) or their family member (n=1). Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed thematically. Results: Three themes are presented. (1) Social care needs: having dementia can reduce an individual’s ability to cope with their visual impairment, and in turn make the person more dependent and prone to lack of daily stimulation. (2) Barriers to using technology to meet social care needs: difficulties were reported in learning to use unfamiliar technology, and for some, the presence of dementia made visual impairment aids unusable and vice versa. Visual impairment aids were also perceived as expensive. (3) Familiarity as a facilitator for meeting social care needs: living at home or taking furnishings and ornaments into a new home environment facilitated retention of independence, and continuity of paid carers / volunteers facilitated the caring relationship between the individual and staff / volunteer. Conclusion: Dementia and visual impairment often coexist and care workers will better serve older people if they are aware of the social care and support needs that arise from having both conditions.