Embracing Reablement as an Essential Support Approach for Dementia Care in the 21st Century: A Position Paper

The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes the right of individuals with dementia and their family caregivers to access interventions that enhance their participation in society. Reablement is an approach that enables older people to participate in meaningful daily and social activities. Over the past decade, a growing body of evidence has underscored reablement as a promising approach within dementia care, including positive outcomes for people with dementia and their family caregivers, and cost-effectiveness. However, the dissemination of knowledge about and practical implementation of reablement remain slow. This position paper, authored by the ReableDEM research network, aims to address key issues related to implementing reablement in dementia care. To expedite the adoption of reablement within dementia care, we propose five critical areas of focus: 1) Changing the attitudes and expectations of stakeholders (eg health and social care staff, policy makers, funders) – encouraging people to think about dementia as a disability from a biopsychosocial perspective; 2) Disrupting health and social care-A radical change is needed in the way services are organized so that they are more holistic, personalized and resource-oriented; 3) Investing in capacity-building and creating a supportive environment – the workforce needs to be trained and supported to implement reablement in dementia care; 4) Involving, educating and supporting family caregivers-services and staff that are equipped to provide reablement will be better able to involve family caregivers and the person’s social network; 5) Providing robust evidence about reablement in dementia care by conducting high-quality research with long-term follow-up.