The Nidus Family package of Zorg uses goals to help people with dementia live at home for longer. New research by Queen Mary University of London in collaboration with UCL shows that in addition to these known benefits, Nidus Family also reduces the costs related to providing support to people with dementia.
About 982,000 people in the UK have dementia, and the costs for providing dementia support in health and social care is expected to increase to £ 90 billion in 2040. Finding ways to support people with dementia to be in their own Houses to continue to live, will probably continue to live in their own houses, improve well -being, reduce inequalities when using treatment and are cost -effective.
Designed by researchers from Queen Mary University of London, Nidus-Family is a package of care and support that focuses on practical changes that people can make, with sessions built around the specific priorities of the person with dementia-as an increasing time spent In pleasant activities, improving sleep or for caregivers to have more time to concentrate on their own well -being. It can be delivered to the person with dementia and family carer together, or only the family carer, by telephone, video ball or personal.
A randomized controlled test, led by Claudia Cooper, professor in psychological medicine to Queen Mary and funded by the Alzheimer’s Society, discovered that family carers and the people with dementia they supported were considerably more likely to reach the goals for reaching the goals to achieve the goals they achieve to achieve the goals. set than those who have received their usual care for a year. This was true whether the intervention was supplied by Video call, telephone or personally.
New data from the study, which is published today in Lancet Healthy Longevity, show that Nidus family is also the first personalized care and support intervention to demonstrate cost-effectiveness from the perspective of the quality of life of people with dementia. People with dementia who participated cost the NHS and Social Care £ 8934 (37%) less on average for a year than people who did not receive extra help. These cost savings were made thanks to the person who received the intervention spending less time in the hospital and used less social care funded by the state, compared to controls, the costs of which exceed the modest £ 346 annual costs of this preventive intervention .
Professor Claudia Cooper said: “The new therapy can be rolled out to support consistent, evidence-based personalized dementia care in the NHS. Since Nidus family helps people with dementia and their families, and also costs less, it must be available in routine care . “
Dr. Richard Oakley, associated director of research and innovation in the society of Alzheimer’s, said: “Dementia destroyed lives and about a million people in the UK have the condition, but there are very few generally available therapies that offer personalized support to help people their day to improve.
“Therapies that are offered are usually expensive, difficult for people in remote areas to gain access, one-size-fits-all, and must be supplied by clinicians, so be dependent on our overburdened care system. That’s why the Nidus family Program is a game-changing intervention for people with dementia, and we are really proud to have financed this work as part of the Initiative of Alzheimer Society’s Centers of Excellence.
“This research shows that within reach, we have a cost-effective, realistic solution that offer people with dementia access to tailor-made, personalized support to achieve their own goals, which we would like to see as an option in routine care.”
Given the challenges related to improving care for people who live with dementia, it is great to see an intervention that makes tangible benefits to patients and their families and possibly a positive financial benefit for the NHS. “
Professor Rachael Hunter, Senior author, Research department of primary care and population Health, UCL
Co-author, professor and chairman Helen Kales, from the UC Davis Health Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, said: “Because dementia is such a common syndrome that the whole family influences, we urgently need evidence-based, cheap interventions for Families and people who live with dementia.
A family caregiver who participated in Nidus described how the family helped: “There were many small things that we had never thought of, but I think the most important thing was the understanding of how my mother influenced her and how she was and her behavior. To implement that and to understand that more, we can deal with the whole situation in a different way. “
The new therapy can be rolled out to support consistent, evidence-based personalized dementia care in the NHS. The findings coincide with a phone call from the All -Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) request for dementia for a leveling of diagnostic figures and the care that people receive after a diagnosis, and orders that high -quality post -diagnostic support services for dementia should be available more fairly In England.
Although the current national guidelines recommend that everyone with dementia receives personalized, post-diagnostic support, few do that. Almost two -thirds (61%) of those who are older than 65 with dementia living in the UK in their own house, instead of in Zorghuizen. However, unguided needs, poor self -care, house safety risks and burdens that are reported by family caregivers are common reasons that make moving to a care home necessary.
Queen Mary University of London has a large and growing portfolio of dementia research. The Wolfson Institute of Population Health organizes one of the two NIHR policy research units for dementia and neurodegeneration.
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Journal Reference:
Isaaq, A., et Alt Alto. (2025) Costing a new psychosocial goals and manual support intervention for independence in dementia (Nidus family) Versus goals and routine care: economic evaluation embedded in a randomized controlled test. The Lancet Healthy Lifespan.doi.org/10.1016/j.lanhl.2024.100676.