|
|
Motivational activities for people with Alzheimer's disease
HÁLOVÁ, Jana
Bachelor thesis titled Activation Activities for People with Alzheimer?s disease. Dementia is becoming a social problem, especially in people over 65 years of age. Dementia as a disease begins slowly and quietly. Therefore, patients suffering from it and people around them often confuse it with normal aging. This disease is divided into several types according to its causes. The most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer?s disease. Alzheimer?s disease is one of progredient brain diseases; in humans it is characterized by the disturbance of multiple higher cortical functions, including memory, orientation, thinking, reasoning, understanding, communication skills, and judgment. Early diagnosis and starting the treatment as soon as possible are essential for affecting the course of the disease. The treatment of Alzheimer?s disease is to be approached comprehensively. Pharmacological treatment is important but so are therapies focused on cognitive rehabilitation and activation of the patient. Activation activity means training and consolidation of motor, mental, and social abilities and skills of a person. Activation activities may include ergotherapy, aromatherapy, music therapy, zootherapy, art therapy and more. Family caregivers, who cannot look after a person a person with Alzheimer?s disease, may decide to place the family member in a home with a special regime. Another reason for such placement may be the provision of care in a facility of a standard better than people with dementia could have received at home. At a home with a special regime, a person with Alzheimer?s disease is looked after by nursing staff, medical staff, workers engaged in activation activities, social workers and other therapists; therefore, this professional care for people with dementia is better. Qualitative research, using the methods of a semi-standardized interview, uncontrolled observation, and content data analysis, was chosen for the empirical (practical) part. The research was conducted at the Home with Special Regime in Strakonice and at the Home with Special Regime Na Zlaté stoce in České Budějovice. Thirteen respondents took part in the research. Jobs of the respondents were as follows: a social work instructor in a home with a special regime, a social work instructor in a home for the elderly, a physiotherapist, a direct care worker, an activation activities worker, nurses and a ward sister. The respondents were selected using the snowball sampling method. The research regarding seven respondents, who work with patients suffering from Alzheimer?s disease, took place at the first facility. Six respondents participated in the research at the other facility. Their ages ranged from 27 to 53 years. The objective of this bachelor thesis was to find out the ways in which activities and activation activities change with the progression of Alzheimer?s disease at the facilities for people with dementia syndromes. A partial objective of the thesis was to obtain an opinion of the workers in social services about activation activities most suitable for people with Alzheimer?s disease. Another partial objective was to map the activation activities offered at the two selected facilities with a special regime in South Bohemia. The research question was as follows: Are activation activities for people Alzheimer?s disease performed with regard to the progression of the disease at the selected facilities?
|
guest ::
