Rehabilitation helps individuals maintain and optimize independence. Historically, people with dementia have received little rehabilitation and the focus has been on care to replace lost function. Dementia Rehabilitation is a resource for health and social professionals, service planners, policy makers, and academics. The book makes a compelling case for rehabilitation for people with dementia, including the views of people with dementia and the research evidence. For each area of function, the research evidence and relevant theory is summarized, followed by practical information on clinical assessment, and delivery of therapies. Identifies rehabilitation as a human right for people with dementia. Reviews functions affected by dementia, including cognition, communication, and physical function. Outlines evidence-based strategies to maintain function and to delay decline. Describes how to maintain activities of daily living and leisure activities. Includes techniques to maintain self-identity and mood. Recognizes the importance of environment and care partners in supporting rehabilitation. Summarizes models of care for rehabilitation.
The relevance of cognitive rehabilitation for people with dementia is becoming increasingly accepted by researchers and practitioners in the field. This special issue draws together examples of state-of-the-art research and systematic review by experts in this exciting and growing area. The contributors show how cognitive rehabilitation approaches can be applied, in different ways, to help optimise functioning and address specific difficulties across the full spectrum of severity. While the main focus is on the more commonly diagnosed forms of dementia, treatment possibilities for people with fronto-temporal dementia are also explored. Cognitive rehabilitation interventions need to be grounded in a clear assessment of the profile of strengths and limitations in cognitive functioning, and to demonstrate where possible that treatment effects extend beyond improvement on target measures to have a meaningful impact on wellbeing and quality of life. For this reason, the special issue includes contributions that explore detailed aspects of cognitive functioning or describe new developments in evaluating quality of life in dementia. Cognitive rehabilitation, it is suggested, should be viewed as one important component of a holistic approach to helping people with dementia, their families, and those who care for them. This special issue seeks both to provide information about what has already been achieved and to encourage and stimulate further progress.
Rehabilitation provides a core concept around which to organise support, intervention and care for people with impairments in memory and other cognitive functions. This book introduces a conceptual framework and rationale for the application of a neuropsychological rehabilitation approach for people with dementia, helping them to manage, bypass or overcome these problems and experience optimum well-being. Methods and techniques of cognitive rehabilitation are described and the process of goal-setting is discussed in detail, showing how effective strategies may be linked to form an individualised, goal-oriented approach to intervention. The application of a rehabilitation approach in real-life contexts is explored, demonstrating the role and value of neuropsychological rehabilitation within a holistic, psychotherapeutic framework of care and support. This overview of the neuropsychological rehabilitation approach to dementia care will be of great interest to psychologists as well as to those studying or practising in the area.
Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) has made a huge global, clinical impact since its inception, and this landmark book is the first to draw all the published research together in one place. Edited by experts in the intervention, including members of the workgroup who initially developed the therapy, Cognitive Stimulation Therapy for Dementia features contributions from authors across the globe, providing a broad overview of the entire research programme. The book demonstrates how CST can significantly improve cognition and quality of life for people with dementia, and offers insight on the theory and mechanisms of change, as well as discussion of the practical implementation of CST in a range of clinical settings. Drawing from several research studies, the book also includes a section on culturally adapting and translating CST, with case studies from countries such as Japan, New Zealand and Sub-Saharan Africa. Cognitive Stimulation Therapy for Dementia will be essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students involved in the study of dementia, gerontology and cognitive rehabilitation. It will also be of interest to health professionals, including psychologists, psychiatrists, occupational therapists, nurses and social workers.
Dementia is reaching epidemic proportions. To date treatment has focused on cognitive and behavioural symptoms and their management, but the physical side has been neglected. Physical comorbidity is extremely common in people with dementia and leads to excess disability and reduced quality of life for the affected person and their family. Physical comorbidity is often treatable if not reversible. Epilepsy, delirium, falls, oral disease, malnutrition, frailty, incontinence, sleep disorders and visual dysfunction are found to occur more frequently in dementia sufferers. Physical Comorbidities of Dementia describes how these may present and gives detailed information and evidence-based recommendations on how to recognise and manage these conditions. Written by clinicians, each chapter deals with a separate condition accompanied by a list of recommendations for management. Physical Comorbidities of Dementia provides practical explanations and solutions to help all healthcare professionals to improve care for people with dementia.
Cognitive deficits are part of the normal aging process and are exacerbated by various diseases that affect adults in old age, such as dementia, depression, and stroke. A significant scientific and social effort has been expended to evaluate whether cognitive deficits can be remedied through systematic interventions. The editors, as well as the chapter authors, represent a variety of viewpoints that span theory as well as practice. Overall, they aim to address concepts in cognitive rehabilitation that are useful in intervention research -- research which examines problems and issues in normal and pathological aging -- and focusing on the application of cognitive training strategies in natural settings. Thus, the book is grounded in contemporary theory in cognitive aging and is applicable to both the practicing clinician as well as the researcher. It is organized into four sections. The first highlights prominent theoretical principles; the second looks at cognitive rehabilitation strategies in normal aging; the third examines the interplay between lifestyle patterns and cognitive function through applying a broad definition of lifestyle choices; and the fourth focuses on rehabilitation strategies that address issues in pathological (or diseased) aging.
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.
This innovative book sets out practical guidance for people with dementia, their families and carers on reducing the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Applying a 'rementia' based approach to dementia care, Jackie Pool shows how therapeutic cognitive rehabilitation techniques can be used to reduce symptoms of dementia and ultimately improve quality of life for people living with dementia. Covering topics such as nutrition, stress, communication, memory and sleep, it provides all the tools and information necessary to build a personalised and flexible self-care plan which will improve and sustain quality of life. By clearing away the myths and stigma surrounding dementia, this book creates room for cooperation, creativity and hope.
The purpose of this book is to educate readers regarding the efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation across a variety of neurological conditions, with specific emphasis on rehabilitation-related change detectable via neuroimaging. For ease of reference, this information is divided into separate chapters by neurological condition, since the nature of cognitive impairment and mechanism of rehabilitation may differ across populations. Also included are discussions of the use of neuroimaging in cognitive rehabilitation trials, rigorous design of cognitive rehabilitation trials to have greater scientific impact (e.g., obtaining Class I evidence), and future directions for the field. As such, the book is designed to be useful to both clinicians and researchers involved in the rehabilitation of such conditions so that they can make informed decisions regarding evidence-based treatment to deploy in clinical settings or to further study in research endeavors.
