Background: Reablement programs are recommended for people living with dementia to maintain and improve independence and activities of daily living function, however worldwide, access to quality, evidence-informed programs remains limited. This scoping review aimed to explore barriers, facilitators and strategies when implementing reablement programs for community-dwelling people living with dementia. Methods: A comprehensive scoping review following PRISMA-ScR guidelines (from inception to February 2026) across five databases and grey literature was undertaken to identify publications that reported on implementation of reablement programs for community-dwelling people living with dementia. Two reviewers independently screened abstracts and full texts and independently completed quality appraisal. Thematic analysis using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) explored implementation barriers, facilitators, strategies, and stakeholder-specific factors. Results: Fifty papers were included in the review. A range of reablement approaches were reported, with six programs constituting 62% of the papers. Barriers and facilitators for implementing community-based dementia reablement programs were identified and fit within the CFIR domains. For example, barriers included lack of health professional confidence delivering reablement, workforce capacity within service providers, policy pressures, and challenges around maintaining intervention fidelity. Facilitators included health professional confidence and motivation from perceived reablement benefits, teams working together with good communication, interorganisational collaboration, and promoting awareness of the evidence-base for dementia reablement. Conclusion: This review highlighted that although barriers exist to implementing dementia reablement, there are a range of facilitators and strategies that can be leveraged to promote implementation. With reablement recommended as an important intervention to support people living with dementia, it is imperative that service providers take action towards implementation. Future research should explore the implementation of reablement programs across diverse settings, to bridge the gap between evidence and practice and contribute to accessible reablement programs for all people living with dementia.
Houlden et al. (Sat,) studied this question.