Dementia Carer Assessment of Support Needs Tool

General

The Dementia Carer Assessment of Support Needs Tool (DeCANT) is a questionnaire, which identifies the support needs of carers to people with dementia. A carer is any person who helps a family member, spouse/partner or friend in need of personal and/or practical assistance out of personal motivation rather than financial compensation. It is a self-administered questionnaire consisting of 25 items distributed on four subscales.

The DeCANT provides an individual profile of the carer’s physical, psychological and social support needs in correspondence with WHOs International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) (World Health Organization, 2001). With the purpose of supporting carers in their caring role, this instrument is developed for use in health and social care to enable person-centred assessment of the carer’s support needs as well as to facilitate dialogue between carers and professionals. The DeCANT is suitable for all carers in both home care and residential care settings.

Terms and conditions

Licence

The DeCANT questionnaire may be used free of charge for non-commercial clinical or scientific purposes, provided it is applied as described in the original development and validation article and the user guide. The instruments may not be modified, edited, shortened, expanded, translated, or otherwise altered without prior written permission from the copyright holder, and all uses must cite the original publication(s) appropriately.

Definition of commercial use

Any use that is primarily intended for, or results in, direct or indirect financial gain or competitive advantage. Examples include:

  • Incorporating the questionnaire into software, apps, books, courses, devices or other products that are sold, licensed or subscription-based.
  • Use by private clinics or other health-care providers when administration of the questionnaire is billed to patients, insurers or sponsors.
  • Use by contract research organisations, pharmaceutical or med-tech companies, or other for-profit entities in sponsored studies, product development or marketing.
  • Redistribution, translation, adaptation or modification of the questionnaire for sale or licensing.

Permitted non-commercial use (illustrative)

  • Publicly funded or grant-funded academic research.
  • Routine outcome monitoring in publicly financed health care where no separate fee is charged for the questionnaire.
  • Teaching and training in universities or other non-profit educational settings.

For any intended commercial use, or if in doubt, please contact the copyright holder to obtain a commercial licence.

Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the DeCANT

If you wish to translate and cross-culturally adapt DeCANT into another language, please send a request to Trine Holt Clemmensen. Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of DeCANT uses the English version (see below) and has to follow the guidelines outlined by Beaton et al. → abstract.

The following templates have to filled out during the translation process:

  • DeCANT forward translation → 
  • DeCANT forward translation – synthesis → 
  • DeCANT backward translation → 
  • DeCANT backward translation – synthesis → 

When translation and cross-cultural adaptation has been completed, we ask that all the documentation and the final translated version are forwarded to the developer (Trine Holt Clemmensen). We collect and publish all translated versions of DeCANT on this website to avoid multiple translations of the questionnaire in a specific language.

Dansk version →

Dansk manual →

Dette er den danske version af DeCANT – Spørgeskema om pårørendes behov. DeCANT er et spørgeskema til at identificere behov for hjælp og støtte hos pårørende til en person med demens. En pårørende er en person, som på grund af personlig og ikke økonomisk motivation hjælper et familiemedlem, ægtefælle/partner eller ven, der har brug for praktisk hjælp og/eller personlig omsorg. Det er et selvrapporteret spørgeskema, der består af 25 spørgsmål fordelt på fire afsnit.

Spørgeskemaet kan give en individuel profil af pårørendes fysiske, psykiske og sociale behov for hjælp og støtte i overensstemmelse med WHO’s Internationale klassifikation af funktionsevne, funktionsevnenedsættelse og helbredstilstand (ICF) (World Health Organization, 2001). Spørgeskemaet er udviklet ud fra en personcentreret tilgang for at støtte pårørende til en person med demens og kan bidrage til dialog mellem alle typer pårørende (fx ægtefælle, barn, ven) og fagpersoner. Spørgeskemaet kan anvendes indenfor det sociale- og sundhedsfaglige område, hvor personen med demens bor enten i eget hjem eller i plejebolig.

Clemmensen TH. et al. Informal carers’ support needs when caring for a person with dementia – A scoping literature review. Scand J Caring Sci 2020 → abstract
Clemmensen TH. et al. ‘I know his needs better than my own’ – carers’ support needs when caring for a person with dementia. Scand J Caring Sci 2020 → abstract
Clemmensen TH. et al. Development and Field-testing of the Dementia Carer Assessment of Support Needs Tool (DeCANT) → abstract

English version →

English manual →

This is the English version of DeCANT. It has been translated and cross-culturally adapted into English using the first 3 phases of the method described by Beaton et al. (2000).

Clemmensen TH. et al. Development and Field-testing of the Dementia Carer Assessment of Support Needs Tool (DeCANT) → abstract