AN INVESTIGATION OF DAY CARE FACILITIES FOR THE CARE OF MODERATELY TO SEVERELY DEMENTED OLDER ADULTS.
Contributors: George Mason University.
Published: 1988
Number of pages: 208
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Gerontology.; Psychology, Clinical.
Description: This study was designed to investigate staff attitudes, participant-staff interactive behaviors, and family stress levels in two types of day care facilities that serve frail adults in the community. A dementia center, specializing in the care of moderately to severely demented adults, and two traditional centers serving a wide range of alert to impaired adults were compared on measures of staff attitude, family stress levels, and cognitive and behavioral functioning. An observation system to measure the interactive behaviors of caregivers with demented adults was developed, yielding highly reliable and codeable behaviors. The sample included 42 participants with an age range of 54 to 97 years, one family caregiver for each participant, and 17 staff members from the three facilities. The hypothesis that the dementia center served significantly more impaired clients was confirmed using the cognitive assessment measures, family reports of symptoms and diagnoses of dementia, and observed agitation levels within the three centers. However, the centers, whether traditional or specialized, did not differ on measures of staff attitude, family stress levels, and most measures of behaviors as assessed by the observation system. At the six month follow up, family stress levels were found to be better predictors for nursing home placement than the cognitive status of the day care participant. The three centers did not demonstrate any differences in the number of lower functioning participants discharged to nursing homes. The results suggest that dementia centers are able to maintain more severely cognitively and behaviorally impaired adults in the community even though their staff do not appear to have different attitudes toward frail elderly, or use significantly different interactive behavioral techniques to do so.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-06, Section: B, page: 2129.

Thesis (PSY.D.)--GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY, 1988.

School code: 0883.