INTRODUCTION: The fragmentation of responsibilities in the chain of care may result in information lost, duplications and discontinuity. This may in turn lead to consequences for the person with dementia dealing with unmet care needs.
AIM: The aim of the study was to explore professional care providers’ and stakeholders' views of best practice and needs of improvement of information, collaboration and communication in the chain of care for persons with dementia in Sweden.
METHOD: The study was carried out with an explorative qualitative design based on three focus group interviews. The text was analysed with qualitative content analysis.
RESULTS: The participants’ views of best practices and needs of improvement resulted in six themes following the trajectory of dementia. “Dementia diagnosis significant for receiving care”, “Day care for person with dementia supportive to home care”, “Collaboration between staff important for information delivery”, “Skilled staff for person-centred care”, “The life story of the person with dementia important source of information”, and “Relatives participation for continuity in the chain of care”.
CONCLUSION: A well-functioning network between different professional care providers seems to have an impact on best practice in the chain of care for persons with dementia so they could remain at home despite loss of mental and physical functions.