Holistic Treatment of the Dementia Population

All rehabilitation settings treat patients with a diagnosis of dementia. In all settings, treating a patient with dementia can be difficult. Research confirms that people with dementia demonstrate less goal attainment in therapy due to not only their cognitive deficits, but their limited ability to fully engage in sessions (Zarit, et al., 2020). Recent research has addressed how to improve engagement and, in turn, goal attainment in therapy sessions with the dementia patient. This course will provide evidence-based and best practice interventions to effectively address engagement during therapy sessions with the dementia patient. Easyto use interventions will be provided to assist with improving safety. Effective community referral information will be provided todecrease caregiver burden. Course participants will be provided with a toolkit of new and effective interventions to use with their dementia patients the next day.

Target Audience: Physical Therapists, Physical Therapist Assistants, Occupational Therapists, Occupational Therapy Assistants, Speech-Language Pathologists

Highlights

• Next day incorporation of evidence-based techniques to improve safety of the dementia patient
• Immediately build a toolkit of effective best practices for therapy engagement of the dementia patient
• Effective referrals for decreasing caregiver burden