Reliability and Validity of the Care Plan Checklist for Evidence of Person-Centered Approaches for Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms Associated With Dementia.

The validation used 137 consented residents from 14 settings in two states, so it is a small, two-state sample. Behavior and symptom measures relied on staff or proxy recall and brief observation, so behaviors could be missed. The sexually inappropriate behavior item fit poorly, and only 4 care plans addressed it, so that item should be interpreted cautiously. 78 care plans were so low in documented person-centered approaches that they could not be differentiated. Observed resistiveness to care was low, with a mean of 0.51, yet 42% of care plans addressed it and only 16% were noted to exhibit it, so the checklist may not match observed care interactions.

Do not conclude that using this checklist improves resident care or reduces psychotropic medication use. The study tested how reliably the checklist could score care plans, not whether care plan changes helped residents.