Care of People with Dementia in their Environments, the COPE program, is designed to enhance the well-being and quality of life of both the individual with dementia and family carer, including by delaying nursing home placement.
Who is COPE for?
COPE is designed for people with dementia who:
AND a family member, friend or neighbour who:
Both the person with dementia and the family carer are engaged in and should be available for the duration of the COPE program.
What is the COPE Program?
COPE delivers a multi-session intervention over three phases, provided by specifically COPE trained occupational therapists and nurses, providing families with education and important skills to prevent and manage challenging care problems at home.
The nurse provides carer with information including, helping identify and monitor common health-related concerns related to changed behaviours or decreased functional ability.
For each targeted problem, a written COPE prescription is provided describing the problem, what the carer would like to change and specific strategies to address this.
What’s Involved
The COPE intervention involves:
COPE was developed in the US by Professor Laura Gitlin (Drexel University) and A/Professor Catherine Piersol (Thomas Jefferson University) and was translated for use in Australia as part of the COPE Australia research project
Click for more information on COPE research.
Click here find out about adopting the COPE program in your organisation.
Click here to find out about COPE training.
Want to know more? Email [email protected]
COPE was adapted to the Australian context with funding from the NHMRC Partnership Centre for Dealing with Cognitive and Related Functional Decline in Older People and with permission from the original “Care of persons with dementia in their environments” developers Professor Laura Gitlin and her team.
