Long-Term Care Service in Dementia: Experience from a Dementia-Integrated Care Center in Taiwan

Abstract

Background: In Long-term Care (LTC) Plan 2.0, the Taiwanese government built several dementia-integrated care centers (DICCs). DICC is a service platform providing case management for dementia people. The present analytical descriptive study aimed to analyze the integrated data of dementia patients in DICC of a tertiary medical center in Northern Taiwan, and to compare the severity and types of dementia according to LTC services subjects receiving. Methods: A total of 635 were collected from the system of dementia case management of the Department of Health, New Taipei City Government. They were diagnosed with having dementia by neurologists in Mackay Memorial Hospital between January 1, 2017, and November 30, 2019. Chi-square test was used to compare the differences in LTC services, dementia type and severity. Results: Alzheimer's disease (AD)was the most common type of dementia the subjects suffered. Nearly 90% of subjects received LTC services. According to the type of LTC service subjects receiving, there was a significant difference (p = 0.032) between subjects with clinical dementia rating (CDR) ≤ 1 and CDR ＞ 1. In subjects with non-AD, there was a significantly (p = 0.04) higher proportion (71.2%) of subjects with CDR ≤ 1 receiving LTC services. Conclusion: Although the receiving rate of LTC services was high in the DICC, there were differences in the type of LTC service subjects receiving according to the severity of dementia. Regardless of the dementia type, subjects with CDR ≤ 1 tend to receive more LTC services.