DEMENTIA PATIENTS

Promoting Occupation within Dementia Patients in Residential Care



Table of Content

AIMS1

OBJECTIVES1

LITERATURE REVIEW1

RESEARCH METHOD3

ETHICAL ISSUES IN THE RESEARCH PROCESS4

Issues with Data Collection5

STUDY PROPOSAL6

Study Process7

Search Strategies7

Resources and Facilities7

Research Plan8

CONCLUSION9

REFERENCES10

Promoting Occupation within Dementia Patients in Residential Care

Aims

The main aim of the research will be to:

Evaluate the residential care of dementia patients

Discuss the promoting occupation within dementia patients in residential care

Objectives

The main objectives for the research will be to:

Discuss the tactics for the healthcare of Dementia patients.

Evaluate the best practice for recovery from dementia.

Explores the use of advance care planning at time of the dementia diagnosis to help relieve stress and anxiety of the patient, family, and the healthcare team throughout the stages of dementia.

Explores the use of advance care planning at the time of dementia diagnosis.

Discusses the end stages of dementia and the impact advance care.

Literature review

Dementia is mainly suffered by elderly. It is the condition of the brain due to which a person becomes forgetful gradually (Litchtenberg P.A, 2003, pp.7). This disease affects the person's abilities of understanding, thinking, and judgment. It often leads to declining the person's ability to perform the routine tasks. According to the latest research, persons with Dementia must be provided with the environment which promotes their mental and physical activities. Research shows that occupation therapy improves the quality of life, not only for the dementia patients, but also for their family members and care givers (Dickinson E., 2006). As it is a non pharmacological process, it has no toxic or other hazards of chemical medications.

In nursing homes, more than 50% of patients suffer from dementia or some kind of mental impairment. We propose to study the effects of promoting occupation in the patients of dementia. Along with effective nursing care, it is considered essential to create a social environment for such people in which, they feel involved and busy. During this project, we will evaluate that if the residents of nursing homes having dementia are supported to be involved in any occupation, how will this strategy be helpful for their health improvement.

Before discussing the proposed research topic, we briefly discuss few theoretical paradigms of research, methodologies used, ethical issues, and possible issues of data collection.

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM IV fourth edition (1994) there are identified criteria for diagnosing an individual with dementia. The individual exhibits multiple cognitive deficits, including impairment to one's memory, as well as at least one of the following:

disturbed executive functioning,

apraxia,

aphasia, or

agnosia.

These deficits are a progressive decline from the individual's previous level of functioning. The cognitive deficits are burdensome enough to impair social and/or occupational functioning; and the cognitive deficits do not occur exclusively with an episode of delirium.

The clinical course of dementia is progressive in nature, a progressive deterioration in ones cognitive ability. According to Givens, Kiely, Carey, and Mitchell (2009) the course of advanced dementia is unpredictable and progressive, requiring decisions to be made in regards to plan of care and also requires healthcare proxies to make decisions ...