Healthcare professionals' perceived challenges and solutions when providing rehabilitation to persons living with dementia—A scoping review

AIM: This review aimed to map studies related to healthcare professionals' perceptions and attitudes towards the rehabilitation for persons living with dementia and extract what they perceive are the barriers and solutions. BACKGROUND: Rehabilitation can improve the quality of life and integration of persons living with dementia into society. However, there are several barriers to accessing rehabilitation services. Healthcare professionals are a source of information to understand the challenges and provide solutions to improve these services. DESIGN: Arksey and O' Malley (International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 8, 2005 and 19) five-step framework for scoping reviews and the PRISMA-ScR checklist was used. The PAGER (Patterns, Advances, Gaps, Evidence for practice and Research recommendations) framework was used to identify research and practice recommendations. METHOD: Seven databases including Medline Complete, Academic Search Ultimate, Ageline, CINAHL, PsycInfo, Pubmed and Google Scholar were searched. The healthcare professionals' perceived challenges and solutions were categorised using Braun & Clarke (Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, 2006 and 77) thematic analysis. RESULTS: Fifteen articles were selected for review. The challenges and solutions were organised according to their association with three stakeholders; the persons living with dementia/informal caregivers, healthcare professionals and the organisation providing the service. Nine of the studies focused on persons living with dementia following a fall or a hip fracture. Most of the studies focused on the perceptions of allied healthcare professionals, with nurses working in rehabilitation settings being underrepresented. CONCLUSION: Healthcare professionals have to consider the complexity of rehabilitating persons living with dementia irrespective of the rehabilitation speciality. Moreover, more studies are needed that focus on the views of rehabilitation nurses. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This review provides further evidence of the healthcare professionals' misconceptions about the rehabilitation potential of persons living with dementia. There is a need to educate healthcare professionals about the societal, attitudinal and environmental barriers faced by persons living with dementia and their caregivers. PATIENT CONTRIBUTION: No Patient or Public Contribution-scoping review.