P4‐382: Namaste Care Program for Advanced Dementia: Impact on Persons With Advanced Dementia (Pwad), Caregivers and Healthcare Staff

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Namaste Care Program, a sensory-based program, was developed to provide structure to the daily life of PWAD, through conduct of meaningful activities and physical interactions by healthcare staff (Namaste Carers). We aim to explore the impact of Namaste Care Program on PWAD, their caregivers and Namaste Carers. We recruited 8 patient-caregiver dyads and 10 Namaste Carers to participate in the Namaste Care Program in a tertiary hospital in Singapore. Patient-caregiver dyads were surveyed pre-post program on quality of life and cognition using the Quality of Life in Late-Stage Dementia (QUALID) scale and the Severe Impairment Rating Scale (SIRS). Caregivers and Namaste Carers were interviewed separately post-program to evaluate the impact of the program on them and PWAD. We then conducted a concurrent explanatory mixed methods analysis. The median age of PWAD was 88 years old with 75% on tube feeding. 50% of caregivers were female adult child. Namaste Carers were female nurses with an average of 3.8 years experience in dementia care. Comparing pre-post program scores for PWAD, QUALID scores decreased (improvement in quality of life) and SIRS scores increased (increased cognitive response) though not statistically significant (p = 0.109 and p = 0.465 respectively). Thematic analysis of 4 caregivers’ and 6 Namaste Carers‘ transcripts revealed benefits of Namaste Care Program such as positive motor and verbal responses from PWAD, alleviation of caregiver stress, improvement in patient-caregiver relationships, advocacy for good dementia care, validation of formal caregiving role and inculcation of favourable attitudes towards PWAD. Though caregivers and Namaste Carers had negative perceptions of PWAD (poor quality of life, multitude of functional deficits), they viewed Namaste program favourably for provision of holistic dementia care for PWAD where personhood was respected and approaches were person-centric. Challenges identified by Namaste Carers (time constraint, competing service demands, heavy workload) were mitigated by suggestions of training more Namaste Carers and garnering hospital's management support. With empowerment of knowledge and acquisition of skills through Namaste Care Program, care for PWAD can be improved. The caregiver- and healthcare staff-endorsed benefits will be the catalyst for program expansion across various care settings.