Introduction: Ageing is a physiological process. One of the diseases of the elderly is dementia. Dementia as a medical condition affects not only the person, but also his or her loved ones. Long-term care is important for people with dementia, as the disease progresses and the person's condition will only get worse. This should not forget the carer and their physical and mental well-being. It is dangerous to forget oneself in the midst of excessive care, and to become physically and mentally exhausted. Carers need psychological support, information about the illness and help with socialising. Purpose: The aim of this thesis is to identify the needs of people with dementia, to identify interventions that promote independence of people with dementia and to identify the problems most frequently encountered by lay carers of people with dementia. Methods. We used the descriptive method in our diploma thesis, which involved a review of scientific articles. We searched for articles in CINAHL full text, MEDLINE, ScienceDirect and COBIB bibliographic databases; we also checked the references of the articles we found. The analysis included 18 sources of literature. Results: Because dementia care is an ongoing process, we described interventions to empower people with dementia to live independently in their home environment for as long as possible. As the condition of the person only worsens as the disease progresses, the caregivers are mainly those closest to the person, the so-called caregivers. It is important to inform them about the disease and its consequences and to empower them to care for the person with dementia. The services for caregivers are mainly oriented towards providing support and assistance in the daily care of the person with dementia, and support in balancing the role of caregiver with their own needs. Discussion and conclusion: Long-term care for people with dementia is underdeveloped in Slovenia. Slovenia is behind other European countries in the development of long-term care services, and there has been even less progress in the care of people with dementia and support for their caregivers. New developments have only just been introduced by the adoption of the Long-Term Care Act. The law provides a legal basis for beneficiaries with similar needs to have access to similar rights and choices.
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