Dive Brief:
- A new Health Affairs study has concluded that enhancing support systems for the spouse and adult child caregivers of people with dementia could generate significant direct care cost savings.
- Researchers were studying the impact of the New York University Caregiver Intervention, which provides enhanced support services to caregivers of people with dementia. Services included family and individual counseling, ad hoc telephone counseling as needed and encouragement to take part in a weekly support group. The model had been implemented at 14 sites in Minnesota.
- When researchers created a simulation to examine the effect of this intervention, they found that the intervention increased the proportion of Minnesotans with dementia remaining at home by about 5% by year three of the program. Over 15 years the savings could be as much as $996 million.
Dive Insight:
Supporting spouses and family members of dementia patients is clearly both the right thing to do and a financially-wise approach. Even incrementally, over 15 years, a savings of close to $1 billion is plenty of reason to implement this protocol elsewhere in the U.S., or elsewhere in the world if they see fit.