Use of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Technologies to Support Resilience and Skill-Building in Caregivers of Persons With Dementia: A Scoping Review.

Dementia presents a growing public health challenge with most affected individuals living at home, placing significant responsibility on their caregivers. Various interventions, from traditional support groups and education programs to emerging technologies, and more specifically virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), aim to enhance caregiver skills. While VR/AR shows promise in educating and fostering empathy among caregivers and healthcare professionals, its overall effectiveness and practicality in older adults and dementia care warrant further exploration.

Public advocacy and community engagement: interventions for individuals with young-onset dementia and their families.

Individuals and families affected by young-onset dementia (YOD) deal with multiple difficulties related to the altered timing of the dementias. These individuals and families are overlooked by the health care and social support systems because there are few tailored services/policies for younger people affected by dementia. This article suggests how public advocacy and interventions at the clinical and community levels can support people living with YOD, in particular the spouses, who provide most of the care.

Development of supportive services for frontotemporal dementias through community engagement.

The effect of early onset frontotemporal dementias (FTD) on spouses and children is profound, requiring different types of support services from pre-existing Alzheimer's disease interventions already in place. This article explores how the needs of families living with FTD resulted in three programme initiatives developed at Baycrest (an academic health sciences centre focused on ageing, in Toronto, Canada) to meet the needs of this population. These included an Internet-based videoconferencing support group for spouses, a website that provides support and counsel for children and their parents, and an adult day programme designed for FTD patients.

Management of frontotemporal dementia in mental health and multidisciplinary settings.

Diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in the mental health setting and issues pertaining to longitudinal care of this population in a specialist clinic are reviewed. FTD is often misdiagnosed as a psychiatric disorder, most commonly as a mood disorder. FTD has features that overlap with those of major depression, mania, obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia.