Environmental Change And Psychosocial Interventions To Improve Dementia Care In Residential Facilities

This new edited volume seeks to meet the growing need for ways to support people with dementia across the whole course and trajectory of dementia care, with a wide scope of expertise. The book addresses how practitioners and carers can apply psychosocial interventions - which take into consideration the individual, social and environmental aspects of a person's life - across this trajectory, right from the earliest stages through to practice in care home settings. Divided into four sections, each covers a different context in which people with dementia can be supported: at home; in community settings; family and carer support; and those in care homes and hospitals. In addition, there is a distinct focus throughout on evidence-based practice and its implementation in real-world settings. This book is essential reading for any practitioner and caregiver wanting to support people with dementia.

Learn how gardens and parks can be beneficial to residents Mounting evidence reveals that nature and outdoor environments provide individuals with dementia greater enjoyment in life, lower stress levels, and positive changes to physical well-being. Outdoor Environments for People with Dementia explores how fulfilling the fundamental genetically based need of human relationships with nature can improve the health and well-being of people with dementia. Top experts analyze current research and comprehensively examine how the design processes of gardens and parks can be closely connected to effective interventions. Evaluation tools for those with dementia are discussed, including studies of the impact of plants and outdoor activities on this population. Outdoor Environments for People with Dementia discusses in detail practical approaches that can significantly improve the quality of life for dementia victims. Research is discussed revealing important aspects and issues needing to be addressed when creating better outdoor environments that are effective in helping residents of long term care facilities and residential care homes. The text is extensively referenced and provides several tables, figures, and photographs to clearly illustrate concepts. Topics discussed in Outdoor Environments for People with Dementia include: the impact of outdoor wandering parks and therapeutic gardens on people with dementia empirical studies on how access to and participation in nature-related activities can benefit people with dementia interventions to restore people with dementia having directed-attention fatigue evaluation tools for gardens for people with dementia research-based design recommendations for future gardens theories and empirical studies about healing gardens training staff to increase their knowledge about horticulture and encouraging them to involve residents in outdoor activities general guidelines for developing an outdoor space examination of the attributes for the superior outdoor space found in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with design recommendations for the future Outdoor Environments for People with Dementia is a valuable resource for scholars, policymakers, legislators, architects and urban planners, lending institutions, developers, landscape architects, and the lay public in general who have an interest in the subject—personal, professional, or civic.

As the largest generation in U.S. history - the population born in the two decades immediately following World War II - enters the age of risk for cognitive impairment, growing numbers of people will experience dementia (including Alzheimer's disease and related dementias). By one estimate, nearly 14 million people in the United States will be living with dementia by 2060. Like other hardships, the experience of living with dementia can bring unexpected moments of intimacy, growth, and compassion, but these diseases also affect people's capacity to work and carry out other activities and alter their relationships with loved ones, friends, and coworkers. Those who live with and care for individuals experiencing these diseases face challenges that include physical and emotional stress, difficult changes and losses in their relationships with life partners, loss of income, and interrupted connections to other activities and friends. From a societal perspective, these diseases place substantial demands on communities and on the institutions and government entities that support people living with dementia and their families, including the health care system, the providers of direct care, and others. Nevertheless, research in the social and behavioral sciences points to possibilities for preventing or slowing the development of dementia and for substantially reducing its social and economic impacts. At the request of the National Institute on Aging of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Reducing the Impact of Dementia in America assesses the contributions of research in the social and behavioral sciences and identifies a research agenda for the coming decade. This report offers a blueprint for the next decade of behavioral and social science research to reduce the negative impact of dementia for America's diverse population. Reducing the Impact of Dementia in America calls for research that addresses the causes and solutions for disparities in both developing dementia and receiving adequate treatment and support. It calls for research that sets goals meaningful not just for scientists but for people living with dementia and those who support them as well. By 2030, an estimated 8.5 million Americans will have Alzheimer's disease and many more will have other forms of dementia. Through identifying priorities social and behavioral science research and recommending ways in which they can be pursued in a coordinated fashion, Reducing the Impact of Dementia in America will help produce research that improves the lives of all those affected by dementia.

Written by leading international experts, this book discusses the latest advances in the field of dementia in nursing homes. The topics and findings covered are based on their survey and on a scientific literature review. Dementia is spreading worldwide, placing a growing burden on healthcare systems and caregivers, as well as those affected. With increasing and complex care needs, nursing home admission is often necessary. Globally, over half of nursing home residents suffer from dementia. The book provides essential information on the most important issues in dementia in nursing homes today, including meaningful activities, patient-/person-centered care, psychosocial interventions, challenging behavior, inclusion and support of family members, pain, staff training and education, communication, polypharmacy, quality of life, end-of-life care and advanced care planning, depression, delirium, multidisciplinary approaches, physical restraints and care dependency. Each topic is covered by an international expert in dementia. As such, the book will appeal to professional nurses, nursing scientists, nursing students, other healthcare professionals, and to a broad readership, and will provide a valuable resource for those working in nursing homes, as well as researchers in the field.

Understanding socially disruptive behavior in dementia is never easy. Most explanations offer neither solace nor solutions for families and carers, and treatment is often characterized by policies of control and containment. The result of Graham Stokes' 15 years of clinical work with people who are challenging, this book: disputes the traditional medical model of dementia and asserts that if we reach behind the barrier of cognitive devastation and decipher the cryptic messages, it can be shown that much behavior is not meaningless but meaningful. It contrasts the medical interpretation that sees anti-social behavior as mere symptoms of disease with a person-centered interpretation that resonates change and resolution. It offers a radical and innovative interpretation of challenging behavior consistent with the new culture of dementia care, focusing on needs to be met rather than problems to be managed.

The rapid growth of home health care has raised many unsolved issues and will have consequences that are far too broad for any one group to analyze in their entirety. Yet a major influence on the safety, quality, and effectiveness of home health care will be the set of issues encompassed by the field of human factors research-the discipline of applying what is known about human capabilities and limitations to the design of products, processes, systems, and work environments. To address these challenges, the National Research Council began a multidisciplinary study to examine a diverse range of behavioral and human factors issues resulting from the increasing migration of medical devices, technologies, and care practices into the home. Its goal is to lay the groundwork for a thorough integration of human factors research with the design and implementation of home health care devices, technologies, and practices. On October 1 and 2, 2009, a group of human factors and other experts met to consider a diverse range of behavioral and human factors issues associated with the increasing migration of medical devices, technologies, and care practices into the home. This book is a summary of that workshop, representing the culmination of the first phase of the study.

As communication skills decline in people with dementia, a supportive environment becomes crucial to a resident's abilities to express needs and desires. The ECAT is the evidence-based toolkit to help you recognize what physical and social changes will help improve functioning, communication, and quality of life. Here are the tools to assess, intervene, and modify - on an individualized basis - to ensure the quality of life for people with dementia. In three easy-to-follow steps, the ECAT Assessment Forms help you: assess activity performance with quick yes/no questions; evaluate the environment to identify barriers and problems; and pinpoint individualized recommendations for intervention. The ECAT is not only person-centered, but also real-world. ECAT's developers are both researchers and experienced clinicians who have made sure the ECAT integrates effortlessly into evaluation and treatment sessions; helps keep up caseload demands with creative solutions; satisfies regulatory requirements; leads to straightforward functional therapeutic interventions; and identifies low-cost, person-centered environmental modifications. In field-tests, 97% if professionals using ECAT reported it gave them new treatment options to use with clients with dementia. Discover for yourself the surprisingly simple environmental changes that can improve functional independence by increasing the size of sign lettering to identify spaces, using colored tape around a door handle, and encouraging social interactions by rearranging seating areas. ECAT for Dementia Care has more than 300 specific recommendations for interventions and modifications that reduce typical problems encountered during routine activities of daily living for people with dementia. With the ECAT's functionally ba

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and is freely available to read online. This book systematically explores and assesses the quality of the evidence base for effective and supportive design of living environments for people living with Dementia.