Impact of disclosure of a dementia diagnosis on uptake of support services: A pilot study exploring a post-traumatic stress approach

BackgroundAt time of diagnosis, people with dementia and their carers can access support services to help them to plan for their future care needs, but often they do not engage with these services. It is not clear why this occurs but a potential explanation explored in this paper is that disclosure of a dementia diagnosis is an overwhelming and highly stressful event that may lead to behavioural avoidance in the manner of post-traumatic stress. In this study we use a post-traumatic stress screening tool to determine whether being diagnosed with dementia shares some qualitative similarities with post-traumatic stress disorder and explore whether this is associated with a reduced likelihood to engage support services following diagnosis.MethodWe conducted a small pilot study through the local memory clinic with eight people with dementia and 11 carers returning surveys. Participants completed the Impact of Events Scale-Revised, a validated post-traumatic stress disorder screening tool, and also provided inf...