| 205 8 Units, Community Mental Health Teams and the aforementioned case management (28). Multidisciplinary collaboration and communication are key to facilitating the provision of integrated care (29). Collaborative provision of care for people with dementia and informal caregivers has many advantages and can lead to beneficial outcomes such as improved quality of life and decreased caregiver burden (30). However, multidisciplinary collaboration can be challenging when members have conflicting views on priorities (31). To propel integrated care forward, healthcare professionals who work across the diagnostic as well as the post-diagnostic phase are needed. As per Chapter 3, these healthcare professionals who work in both phases feel they are better able to guide people from diagnosis to post-diagnostic support. This requires not only a transformation of the organization of healthcare systems but also the training provided to healthcare professionals as it requires them to possess knowledge relevant to the diagnostic process and post-diagnostic support. To briefly summarize, accessing and seeking support is a complex process that revolves around the health literacy of people with dementia and informal caregivers. Integrated care and care navigation systems can support a more holistic support experience and foster a seamless transition from diagnosis to post-diagnostic support. The experience of post-diagnostic support Once people receive support, unmet needs and dissatisfaction with postdiagnostic support often emerge (32). Chapter 4 identified that a large proportion of people with dementia and informal caregivers felt that the support they received a diagnosis was not sufficient to help them deal with their concerns whilst Chapter 6 identified that post-diagnostic support can influence how people with dementia and informal caregivers deal with a diagnosis. Post-diagnostic support often does not focus on improving quality of life as experienced by a person with dementia (33). Poor experiences of postdiagnostic support are reported by people with dementia, examples include a lack of information in the beginning stages, a lack of meaningful engagement and patient education (34). In addition, people with dementia report unmet needs that concern their quality of life with a need for support to cope and come to terms with the diagnosis (35). People with dementia report difficulty understanding who to contact regarding a problem or concern and find it hard to identify possible treatment for dementia (36).
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