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Publication of the month

Evaluating the impact of an emotion-focused model of dementia care on patient outcomes in acute care settings

Shailesh Nadkarni, Neil Dinesh Dattani and Sudip Saha, Seniors Health
Canadian Geriatrics Journal 2026

Summary

We evaluated the effectiveness of the emotion-focused model of care at improving patient-oriented outcomes in the acute care hospital setting. The Butterfly Model of Care is one such emotion-focused model which aims to focus on the person behind the diagnosis. We compared improvement in neuropsychiatric symptoms in persons living with dementia in the Acute Care for the Elderly (ACE) unit where the emotion-focused model of care was implemented compared to a patient population in the general medical inpatient unit.

Highlights

• Symptom severity scores were significantly lower on the ACE unit for motor behaviour and sleep

• Symptom severity scores were clinically lower in the ACE unit for all domains other than apathy
• Caregivers on the ACE unit were significantly less distressed by patients’ delusions, agitation, anxiety, irritability, motor behaviours and sleep disturbances

Impact

• This is the first study finding statistically significant differences in neuropsychiatric symptoms with the emotion-focused model in an acute care setting
• The decrease in behavioural symptoms in patients could lead to a reduction in moral distress for the care team
• Our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the emotion-focused model of care in acute care settings

Learn more

Read the full text of this article. For questions or comments about this article, send an email to research@williamoslerhs.ca.