These guidelines are evidence-based and mainly developed by healthcare professionals (clinicians and managers). Although specialists and members of public may contribute for their development, once finalised, these documents are not widely available to the public. Thus, many people, including doctors (especially those working in the private sector) do not know about the existence of these guidelines.

There is no clear content about the expectations of different stakeholders in relation to the guideline.

No information on this in the guideline (PERDOSSI, 2015).

References:

PERDOSSI. (2015). Panduan Praktik Klinik: Diagnosis dan Penatalaksanaan Demensia. PERDOSSI.

In general terms, it is proposed that the use of clinical practice guidelines should be a national reference to favour clinical and managerial decision-making based on recommendations supported by the best available evidence, aiming to reduce the variability of clinical practice, as well as the use of unnecessary or ineffective interventions, to facilitate the treatment of patients with the maximum benefit, with a lower risk and an acceptable cost (CENETEC, 2016).

References:

CENETEC. (2016). Dirección de integración de Guías de Práctica Clìnica. CENETEC. http://www.cenetec.salud.gob.mx/contenidos/gpc/dir_gpc.html

Ministry of Health

Following the release of the framework in 2013, the Ministry of Health expectation was that DHBs would use it as a guide to develop and implement their own dementia care pathways in collaboration with primary health and community care sectors.

DHB expectation of the regional guidelines is to facilitate the ability of the primary care sector to diagnose and manage dementia to reduce burden specialist care and to streamline progress through the system.

Primary care expectations centred around guidelines for the assessment and management of dementia and when to refer to specialist care services.

These guidelines currently refer to the private healthcare setting in South Africa with the expectation that various stakeholders (and hopefully policy makers and administrators) will make use of them. Practitioners are expected to use guidelines with caution and continue to be critical of approaches, maintaining their own level of expertise and keeping abreast of developments of evidence-based approaches within the field (Emsley et al., 2013).

References:

Emsley, R., & Seedat, S. (2013). The South African Society of Psychiatrists (SASOP) treatment guidelines for psychiatric disorders. South African Journal of Psychiatry, 19(3), 127–196. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v19i3.942