The Journal of Korean Society of Community-Based Occupational Therapy Vol.4 No.2 pp.75-83
Effects of Home-based Cognitive Occupational Therapy Applied to Dementia Patients in the Initial Stages in Gangwon-do
Key Words : Cognitive occupational therapy,Dementia in the initial stages,Home-based occupational therapy
Abstract
Objective : The purpose of this study is to find out the effects of a Home-based cognitive occupational therapy program conducted for the dementia patients in the initial stages living in Taebaek region in Gangwon-do. Methods : This study carried out Home-based cognitive occupational therapy intervention by 30 Occupational Therapy Dept. students and volunteers targeting 30 dementia patients in the initiative stages for eight sessions, once a week. To identify the change of cognitive function of the participants before and after the program, MMSE-K was used for measuring. Results : As a result of applying Home-based cognitive occupational therapy to the dementia patients in the initial stages, overall cognitive function improvement was demonstrated. Especially, statistically significant improvement was exhibited in orientation, memory retrieval, the concentration of attention, and language ability. Conclusion : The program for cognitive function improvement is considered to be usefully applied to intervention in the dementia patients. The development of various Home-based occupational therapy intervention programs is required in order to adopt the Home-based occupational therapy service in the future.