The challenge of supporting care for dementia in primary care

Most patients with dementia receive care within primary care systems and have challenging medical and psychiatric issues. Their dementia related symptoms are often not recognized by the primary care system; they suffer from multiple chronic medical conditions; receive numerous psychotropic medications including anticholinergics; and display clinically relevant behavioral and psychological symptoms. Improving the care for such vulnerable patients demands supporting the primary care system with various resources, including dementia care managers, access to and coordination with interdisciplinary dementia specialists, and a feasible dementia screening and diagnosis process. Understanding primary care clinics as a complex adaptive system may enhance our capacity to deliver a flexible supportive process using the above crucial resources to adequately assess and effectively manage patients with dementia. Such a complex adaptive system process would have the best probability of surviving the unknowable future challenges that will face the primary care system.