Occupational therapy and dementia: the experience of an Alzheimer special care unit

This trial reports the outcomes of an occupational therapy (OT) program in a group of patients with moderately severe dementia, attending a day care center. Twenty-six patients were enrolled in this therapeutic program for a 12-month period. OT sessions were held for two hour a day, five days a week. The outcomes of the trial suggest that the introduction of OT and multidimensional assessment may improve management and mediate the psychophysical decline of persons with dementia. Indeed, the assessed performance indices remained relatively stable over time, as compared to the decline expected by the natural progression of disease. Moreover, behavioral disorders evaluated by the neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI) scores improved appreciably between treatment start and end. The day care center provides an opportunity for both the person with dementia and their family by optimizing therapy for the patient and providing medical assistance for morbid conditions that ensue during the course of disease and by lowering the burden of care and providing moral support for the family by a trained staff, with particular focus on behavioral disorders that are not amenable to pharmacological management.