The Hospice Advanced Dementia Symptom Management and Quality of Life Trial (HAS-QOL)

Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders (dementia) are a group of serious life limiting illness that cause significant challenges to our public health system, with significant illness burden for both the person with dementia and the caregiver. At the end of life, over 230,000 persons with dementia annually are cared for in hospice, yet hospice agencies are ill prepared to care for this population and often resort to inappropriate pharmacologic measures such as antipsychotics that reduce quality of life rather than improve it. This study will therefore through its two phases refine and then implement, using a pragmatic stepped wedge trial design, the Dementia Symptom Management at Home Program Hospice Edition, with the goal improving quality of care for the person with dementia and their caregiver, reducing antipsychotic use, and increasing bereaved caregiver satisfaction in the hospice setting.