The University of California,San Diego,Continuing Medical Education and the Alzheimer's Family Center's School of Dementia Care Training Program for Licensed Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly

Abstract

The provision of appropriate care for dementia patients differs greatly from that required for cognitively normal frail elderly individuals. Appropriate care requires knowledge of the causes, physical and behavioral symptoms of dementia; as well as an understanding of how to deal effectively and compassionately with such individuals -and their families on a day to day basis.

Symptoms of dementia are manifested very differently in each patient, so that careful individual assessment is necessary, and development of a plan of care for each person is needed. The smaller residential care facilities for the elderly are ideally suited to implementation of genuinely individualized care. With good training, these small facilities can be real innovators in providing humane and appropriate care for dementia patients who do not require skilled nursing care.