DECIDE-2

Project description

Dementia is an incurable disease that mainly affects older people and is associated with a loss of autonomy for those affected and a high level of stress for relatives. People with advanced dementia are often no longer capable of making self-determined decisions in the last phase of their lives, and issues such as treatment, care and death are not adequately discussed with those involved beforehand. This often leads to uncertainty for relatives when making proxy treatment decisions at the end of life. The DECIDE-2 project therefore aims to provide decision support for advance health planning for people with dementia and their relatives in order to strengthen the autonomy of those affected when making decisions for the last phase of life and to reduce the burden on relatives and loved ones. This decision-making support is integrated into the concept of dementia care management (DeCM). The focus here is on empowering people to make self-determined decisions. The effectiveness of the decision support will also be tested in a controlled study. Furthermore, a supplementary decision support system using a technical dialog system (so-called "chatbot") is being developed and also tested. Both measures, alone and integrated, should contribute to the autonomy of people with dementia when making decisions for the last phase of life and thus relieve the burden on relatives and caregivers.

Source Federal Ministry of Education and Research: https://www.gesundheitsforschung-bmbf.de/de/decide-2-entscheidungsassistenz-bei-gesundheitlicher-vorausplanung-fur-menschen-mit-demenz-17996.php