The aims of the IDEAL schedule

This chapter provides an overview of the purposes of the International Schedule for the Integrated Assessment and Staging of Care for Dementia (IDEAL schedule) and its user manual. The IDEAL user manual provides information that is needed when learning how to use the IDEAL schedule. The schedule is a global clinical staging schedule for dementia, which allows an assessment of a person across seven dimensions (activities of daily living, physical health, cognitive functioning, behavioural and psychological symptoms, social support, informal care, and formal professional care), and provides ability-to-function information as well as suggestions concerning care elements corresponding to the level of impairments of function. Attached to the IDEAL schedule is a ‘Menu of care options’ with recommendations for interventions for different stages of severity of dementia, as measured by the IDEAL schedule.