Authors (including presenting author) :
Kwok CY (1,2,4), Pun HY (1,2,4), Tang WS (1), Chan CC (3), Tsoh J (3), Ko SF (3), Cheung SY (1), Wong SM (3), Sze YM (1), Ngai WC (3), Chan WM (1), Chan SF (1), Cheung CL (1), Ho YS (1), Lam CM (1), Tsang KW (1), Cheng ST (2), Fung WY (2), Wong PS (2), Chui CM (2), Ho KY (2)
Affiliation :
(1) Department of Medicine and Geriatrics, Shatin Hospital, (2) Jockey Club Centre for Positive Ageing, (3) Department of Psychiatry, Shatin Hospital, (4) Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Keyword 1: :
Cognitive impairment
Keyword 2: :
Medical-Social Collaboration
Introduction :
Hospitalisation is prevalent among people with cognitive impairment, while it is associated with higher mortality rate, prolonged stay, and physical and cognitive deconditioning. Non-pharmaceutical intervention promoting positive well-being could be arranged for the well-being of inpatients with cognitive impairment; however, heavy hospital staff workload limits the capacity of intervention delivery.
Objectives :
This programme adopts a medical-social collaboration model in hospital setting to provide engagement and care with VERA (Validate, Emotion, Reassure, Activity) Model to people with cognitive impairment and their caregivers. Hospital staff work alongside the community partner to promote patient care, early community linkage for families, and ageing in place. Assessments are conducted to identify apathy, delirium, and distressed behaviours, enabling tailored care recommendation to preserve quality of life, while caregivers receive NGO linkage for post-discharge support.
Methodology :
Inpatients with cognitive impairment admitted to Shatin Hospital under the support of Medicine & Geriatrics team and Psychogeriatrics team are invited and referred by ward managers to participate in this collaboration. The intervention is adapted from the Tailored Activity Program for Hospitalised Patients, comprises two 1-hour sessions over two weeks, focusing on positive psychosocial activities such as art therapy, music therapy, and reminiscence. The intervention is provided by trained dementia activity practitioners from the community partner in the wards. Caregivers receive two sessions of support for post-discharge needs. Responses of inpatients after the activities will be shared with caregivers to continue the engagement and facilitate post-discharge home care. A mixed-method study started in December 2025 to recruit 250 inpatient-caregiver dyads and 30 hospital staff to examine changes in patient outcomes (quality of life, agitation, length of stay, delirium), caregiving outcome (caregiving self-efficacy), and programme feasibility and satisfaction.
Result & Outcome :
Referred inpatients with apathy reported feeling cared for and were observed with increased positive responses. Appreciation was obtained from the families as well as hospital staff. Inpatients with delirium and agitation were observed by ward staff to be more cooperative in medication administration and meal intake after the person-centred care activities. Caregivers learnt to re-connect with the care recipients through VERA model. Future development should explore the feasibility of incorporating this innovative medical-social collaboration model in hospital setting for better synergy between pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions, drawing on evidence generated from the ongoing research.
