Table 2.

Dementia trajectory showing the changing situation over time

	Post Event	Steady State	Post Event	Steady State	Post Event	Steady State	Event	Steady State
Characteristics	Period 1a	Period 1b	Period 2a	Period 2b	Period 3a	Period 3b	Period 4a	Period 4b
Event at start of period	Diagnosis.		Increased care needs. Some degree of supervision necessary.		Hospitalised eg. minor fall, UTI, pneumonia.		Increased care needs and carer strain. Trigger event.	Nursing Home.
Dementia Severity	Mild		Moderate		Moderate		Severe
Functional Impairment	None		Shopping, Transport		Dressing, Bathing		Fully Dependent
Behavioural Symptoms	Apathy		Apathy		Apathy, Hallucinations		Apathy, Hallucinations
Comorbidities	Diabetes		Diabetes		Diabetes		Diabetes & swallowing problems
Living Situation	Spouse (75) + children near		Spouse (77) + children near		Spouse (78) + children near		Spouse(79) + children near
Carer Burden	Low		Moderate		Moderate		High
Length of period in weeks	0	65	0	65	0	65	0	65
Total No. of Weeks per period		65		65		65		65