What’s Important in Navigating Dementia Outcomes and Why? (WINDOW)

Many older adults, particularly people with cognitive impairment or dementia, want to remain at home as they age. This is sometimes called “aging in place.” However, whether a person can age in place safely often depends on their access to financial and social resources like caregiving support or home modifications for accessibility. Unfortunately, many people with dementia and their families do not talk about their priorities related to aging in place until something happens that makes their living situation unsafe. When decisions about where to live are made reactively, without understanding what is most important to the person with dementia, it does not feel like a choice for anyone.

We want to help older adults with dementia or cognitive impairment talk to their loved ones and clinicians about aging in place, so that they can plan ahead and make decisions based on what matters most to them. We are developing a conversation tool to support these discussions. We will get feedback from older adults with and without cognitive impairment, their loved ones, and clinicians who care for people with dementia as we develop versions of the tool and make changes based on their input. We hope that the conversation tool we develop will make it easier for older adults with cognitive impairment to think ahead about what they may need to remain safely at home as their dementia progresses. Planning in advance may help people remain at home safely for a longer time and may help reduce stress for their caregivers.

Penn Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC)