ArticleBMJ open2023
How do emergency department staff respond to behaviour that challenges displayed by people living with dementia? A mixed-methods study.
Article in BMJ open, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Advancing dementia-friendly hospital care: a systematic review of healthcare professionals' reported barriers and facilitators using the theoretical domains framework.Age and ageing · 2026Pooled it
- A Novel Approach to Addressing Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in the UCSF Emergency Department: Code DICE.Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine · 2026Article
- Emergency Department Utilisation and Related Costs in People With and Without Dementia in Their Last Years of Life.Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA · 2026Article
- What Matters Most to People Living With Dementia and Their Care Partners During Emergency Department Visits.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2026Article
- Home Time Following Emergency Department Visits Among People With Dementia.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Monoclonal Antibody Therapies in Alzheimer's Disease: A Guide for Emergency Physicians.Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA · 2025Review
- "I know you didn't want to stay": emergency department conversations about disposition for people living with dementia.The Gerontologist · 2025Article
- Experiences of the emergency department environment: a qualitative study with caregivers of people with dementia.Internal and emergency medicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo investigate staff experiences of, and approaches to behaviour that challenges displayed by patients with dementia in the emergency department (ED). Behaviour that challenges is defined as 'actions that detract from the well-being of individuals due to the physical or psychological distress they cause within the settings they are performed', and can take many forms including aggressive physical actions, shouting and verbal aggression and non-aggressive behaviour including repetitive questioning, inappropriate exposure and resistance to care.
designMixed-methods study consisting of an online survey and semistructured telephone interviews. Quantitative data were analysed and presented using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were analysed thematically.
settingThe EDs of three National Health Service (NHS) Hospital Trusts in Southwest England.
participantsMultidisciplinary NHS staff working in the ED.
resultsFifty-two online survey responses and 13 telephone interviews were analysed. Most (24/36, 67%) survey respondents reported that they had received general training in relation to dementia in the last 2-5 years, however, less than a fifth (4/23, 17%) had received any ED-specific dementia training. All (48/48) felt that behaviour that challenges could potentially be prevented, though resource constraints and practice variation were identified. Four main themes emerged from the qualitative data: (1) the 'perfect storm' of the ED; (2) behaviour that challenges is preventable with the right resources; (3) improvisation and (4) requirement for approaches that are specific to the ED.
conclusionsThe findings of this study suggest that ED staff do not feel that they are prepared to respond effectively to behaviour that challenges displayed by people living with dementia. Future work could adapt or develop an intervention to support ED staff in responding to behaviour that challenges.
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