| 65 3 communicating a diagnosis was essential to access support and required a delicate balance between providing factual information and an emphatic approach to support the person. Building relationships with patients and recognizing them as individuals with individual needs and wishes allowed healthcare providers to guide them through the journey with dementia and anticipate their needs. Quantitative data confirmed the importance of discussing needs with patients as the majority (>50%) reported regularly discussing this. However, the Pds and Dx+Pds group more often indicated to discuss needs with patients compared to the Dx group. Like, I think really take the time to talk with the family member take the time to know the patient, really take the time to have a clear picture. So, I mean, it’s a, a small world, but it does mean a lot when you’re are kinda, looking at the whole picture (Participant in Canada) People with dementia and informal caregivers’ knowledge about dementia was key to better determining their support needs. Healthcare providers felt that information provision was helpful for patients as it could avoid misunderstanding and misconceptions about dementia and could help people move forward. Healthcare providers identified numerous gaps and barriers in information provision, such as people not prioritizing information or lack of health literacy. Healthcare providers saw written information and online information sources as valuable tools for information provision. In addition, setting up a care plan was seen as an important tool to enhance the provision of information. Quantitative data in Table 7 supports the pivotal role of information services for patients, with over 60% expressing it to be sufficiently or highly important. Moreover, healthcare providers were generally satisfied with in-depth information on dementia, dementia progression and medical management for people with dementia and informal caregivers, with the Dx+Pds group reporting the highest levels of satisfaction. Healthcare providers generally felt they had the necessary skills to educate people with dementia (>85% agree for all groups). I do use a lot of information from Dementia Australia and their support groups as well, so they can get on the websites for their webinar and also go to their support groups they usually run an eight week courses and so they attend the courses for that. So I find that very useful for patients. (Participant in Australia)
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