Sustainability of community-based interventions for people affected by dementia: a protocol for the SCI-Dem realist review

What is it about?

We know regular social and community groups, clubs and activities have benefits for people with dementia and the people supporting them, but the availability and delivery of such schemes (as well as funding) can vary dramatically. Such schemes can face real challenges in keeping going long-term and groups, clubs and activities that have flourished may point the way to how to provide such schemes more widely and consistently. We want to understand existing practice so we can provide recommendations on how, why, for whom and in what respects and circumstances interventions like these are likely to work and continue sustainably. To do this we are carrying out a realist review to gather together information on this topic to develop a programme theory – a kind of ‘road map’ – of what happens when community-based interventions are implemented, particularly with regard to people’s initial engagement and the scheme’s ongoing sustainability. This will help us create an evidence-based ‘blueprint’ for those commissioning, planning and running such schemes in community settings, as well informing our recommendations to policy-makers about what could be useful at both a regional and national level.

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