Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

My doctoral thesis focuses on the development of a conceptual model that examines wandering behaviour in persons with dementia from a perspective of risk, rather than disease progression. This is significant, because risks of challenging behaviours, such was wandering, do not necessarily progress with dementia severity. Persons in earlier stages of dementia are generally at high risk of critically wandering. Since Dr. Moore's proposed framework on risk and wander-management strategies, little has been reported in the literature to further our understanding on how such a framework could be used by future stakeholders. My conceptual model will be used by caregivers, health and community service providers, such as the Alzheimer Society and police, to identify strategies to mitigate these risks. I believe that strategies such as GPS locator technologies, are only part of the solution. In fact, there are behavioural signs early on that caregivers can recognize as risks and begin to address this using my conceptual model as a guide.