Participants assigned to the control group had screened positive for cognitive impairment but refused the intervention. They were provided with a GP referral letter and information on helplines and caregiver support. Follow-up interviews were scheduled at week 24.

Weekly meeting/communication sessions with members of intervention team for a total of 24 weeks.

An individualised care plan is developed for PLWDs-caregiver dyads who meet/communicate weekly with various members of the HMDCS team depending on the nature of their needs. Each dyad's care plan involves the diagnosis of problems (eg: memory problems, family conflicts, poor nutrition, fall risk, medication compliance, lack of long-term care arrangements), establishment of treatment goals (eg: caregiver education, awareness of long-term care planning, stabilising medical care at home, improving emotional support), and indicating specific interventions (eg: referrals to counsellors, specialist doctors, day rehabilitation centres; consultations at GP clinic; coordination of advanced care planning; installation of home safety devices; training caregivers to detect acute deterioration in PLWDs). Monitoring of the dyads' statuses and updating of care plans are performed throughout the duration of the programme.

Mini-Mental State Examination is a 30-point test to screen for cognitive impairment. Scores ranging from 20 to 26 indicate some cognitive impairment, 10-19 indicate moderate to severe cognitive impairment and below 10 indicate very severe cognitive impairment.

Zarit Burden Interview is a 22-item instrument for measuring the caregiver's perceived burden of providing care. Questions focus on caregiver's health, psychological well-being, finances, social life and relationship between the caregiver and the PLWD.

Revised Memory and Behavior Problems Checklist is a 24-item (scored on a scale of 0-4) caregiver-report to measure behavioral problems in PLWDs. The items can be summed as a total score and 3 subscale scores in the domains of memory, depression, and disruptive behaviors. Parallel scores for caregiver reaction are also obtained. Such disruptive and challenging behaviors undermine quality of life in PWDs and place both an emotional and financial burden on their caregivers.

Euro-Qol-5D- EQ5D is a commonly used 5-item scale to measure health-related quality of life.

Cost-effectiveness of the new model of care will be assessed using the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) with respect to the control group. Cost will be assessed by recording utilization of health care and long-term care services and their average unit costs. The calculated ICER will show the cost of a quality-adjusted life year (QALY) saved by the new model of care. Effectiveness will be assessed by computing the average quality-adjusted life years left to live by the dementia participant in both groups. As the intervention is not assumed to be life-extending, study groups will only differ through their quality of life as measured by EQ5D weights. We will account for the quality of life of both PLWDs and their caregivers and sum their respective contributions.