[A global intervention program for institutionalized demented patients]

Over the last decades many approaches have been developed to manage cognitive and behavioral disturbances in dementia. The present work describes a global intervention program carried out with moderately to severely demented institutionalized patients. The aims of the intervention program are to stimulate and maintain the preserved abilities of demented patients in a supportive context, to decrease the behavioral disturbance and to avoid burnout of care-unit staff.

This intervention combines different means: psychosocial care (validation therapy, social interaction), cognitive stimulation (memory and verbal training), and motor and sensitive stimulation. The global intervention program requires a special trained team composed of a supervisor, six aid-nurses, an occupational therapist, a speech therapist, a psychomotor therapist and a psychologist. The team cared for the patients five days per week over a three-month period. Assessments were conducted before and after the intervention program to measure the benefit.

Positive effects were shown for cognitive abilities, nutritional problems and staff burnout. However, due to the small sample size for this study, more research is needed to verify the effectiveness of this global intervention program, particularly the implications for nutrition.

This global intervention combined with pharmacological treatment seems to be useful for managing psychological and behavioral disorders of institutionalized demented patients.