Staff and Family Perceptions of Wandering Related Boundary Transgression

Wandering-related boundary transgression (BT) has been identified as a dimension of dementia-related wandering and is defined as ambulation that takes the individual beyond safe limits to out of bounds or hazardous areas. While anecdotal evidence suggests an association between BT, wandering and adverse outcomes for the person with dementia, including invasion of private space, resident to resident violence and becoming lost or trapped, to date no empirical data is available to support this. Describing wandering-related BT is an essential step towards understanding the behaviour, which is reported by care staff to be challenging to manage. This two phase, mixed methods, multiple case descriptive study is currently investigating BT using three strategies: 1) focus groups with residential aged care staff; 2) focus groups with families of people with dementia who wander, and 3) direct observation of residents with dementia who wander ( N=6) and have been reported by their family and care staff to exhibit BT. Baseline data collection included: peak ambulation period assessment, wandering status, mood, agitation and pain. This poster will describe: the recruitment process, study design and method, data collection techniques and challenges experienced, of the observational phase of the study and interim data analysis of BT.