Treating clients and families together in an Alzheimer day care center

Abstract

Functional skills training techniques and effective communication strategies previously found to improve function and decrease behavioral problems in cognitively impaired nursing home residents were taught to family members in tandem with their introduction to an Alzheimer day care center. Compared to non-treatment control clients at the center; treated Alzheimer patients were found to have significantly improved ability to communicate and to exhibit less disoriented, withdrawn, depressed or anxious behaviors. Treated patients did not, however; improve significantly over controls in their ability to perform the basic activities of daily living, and their families did not perceive their care giving burden to have been significantly reduced. Results are interpreted as cautiously supportive of efforts to develop therapeutically-oriented programming in day care and supportive of patient management as a joint responsibility of professionals and family caregivers.