|
Project Director: Kimberly Van Haitsma
Project Ethnographer: Anne Bower
Period: March 2003 - August 2005
Funded by: New York State Department of Health Dementia Grants Program
Abstract:
This “culture change” project sought to create an environment in the long term care setting that would sustain person-centered, relationship-based care for nursing home residents with dementia and their staff caregivers. The aim was to enhance the quality of life for residents and the quality of care provided by staff. The culture change was effected by a two-tiered best practice intervention. One element of the intervention was a Person-centered Group Program, an innovative, therapeutic recreation program for nursing home residents with dementia. The Group Program was introduced, developed and implemented through a second element which was a comprehensive, multi-faceted staff training intervention referred to as the Dementia Care Culture Change Intervention. The Culture Change Intervention was initiated on a residential unit in each of three New York City area nursing homes.
The culture change project used both quantitative and qualitative longitudinal methods to evaluate the impact of the Group Program and the Culture Change Intervention on nursing home residents and staff. Both qualitative and quantitative findings from the project indicated that the impact of the Culture Change Intervention was substantial and at a level rarely enjoyed by most psycho-socially based interventions. Staff participants regarded the Intervention as a successful training that taught them new skills, improved the quality of their recreational programming and benefited the residents. Quantitative findings indicated that residents who participated in the Group Program demonstrated a significant decrease in depressive symptoms over time and an increase in the frequency of activity participation and engagement.
|