“I’m still in the lap of the gods… I don’t know whether I’m going to improve or not”: listening to people with dementia or cognitive impairment and their support people, talking about inpatient rehabilitation experiences

Purpose: People with dementia often experience poor outcomes in hospital and prolonged lengths of stay. They are sometimes labelled as having “poor rehabilitation potential”. This study aimed to understand the inpatient rehabilitation experiences of people with dementia or cognitive impairment, and their support people, to inform future work to improve rehabilitation access and outcomes. Materials and methods: An exploratory qualitative study from an interpretivist perspective. Participants were inpatients of a geriatric rehabilitation unit in Australia, and their chosen support people. Semi-structured interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. An analytical framework was developed and indexed to the dataset, followed by charting and thematic analysis. Results: Ten people with dementia or cognitive impairment and nine support people participated (n = 19). Four themes were identified representing an interpretation of the analysis intended to inform clinical practice: Support patients to engage in the rehabilitation process; create a hospitable environment; recognise and work with care partners; and ensure staff have adequate dementia knowledge. Conclusions: Practical, emotional, process-related, and dementia-specific factors may influence the experiences of people living with dementia or cognitive impairment when participating in inpatient rehabilitation. Future research could investigate whether improvements focused on these factors might enhance quality of care for people with dementia.