REDUCING BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS IN DEMENTIA--DAY CARE USE

照顾患有痴呆症的人是复杂的， 压力很大，而且通常很贵。 家庭面临的各种问题 照顾者，行为和情绪障碍是最紧张的， 往往会导致崩溃的局面， 病人的制度化。一种更有前途的方法， 解决居住在社区的患者的护理需求是通过 成人日间服务计划（ADS），提供结构化的活动 利用病人剩余的能力， 他们经常面临的压力。 在我们以前的工作中， 研究小组，我们发现，照顾者谁登记的亲属与 将痴呆症纳入ADS计划的患者在护理方面的表现显著下降， 与对照组相比，相关的压力源和改善的幸福感。 这项拟议的研究通过探索ADS对 痴呆症患者的行为和情绪。 ADS可能会影响行为， 让患者参与有组织的活动。 通过放松 家庭护理人员面临的问题，ADS的使用也可能减少使用 保健和长期护理服务。 拟议的研究将使用 准实验、非等效组设计。患有痴呆症的人 正在开始一个ADS计划，他们的照顾者将被比作一个 控制组不使用这些服务。 它是假设 使用ADS的痴呆患者将显著减少 随着时间的推移，行为问题和抑郁症状， 对照 我们还预计，ADS组的护理人员将 减少与护理有关的压力，改善健康状况， 将比对照组使用更少的健康和长期护理服务， 组这些变化将通过改善其 相对的行为。

Care for people suffering from a dementing illness is complicated, stressful, and often expensive. Of the various problems faced by family caregivers, disturbances in behavior and mood are the most stressful and often lead to the breakdown of the caregiving situation and institutionalization of the patient. One of the more promising ways of addressing care needs for patients living in the community is through adult day service programs (ADS), which provide structured activities that utilize patients' remaining abilities and give caregivers a break from the often continuous pressures they face. In previous work by our research group, we found that caregivers who enrolled a relative with dementia into an ADS program experienced significant reductions in care- related stressors and improved well-being, compared to a control group. The proposed study extends that work by exploring the effects of ADS on the behavior and mood of dementia patients. ADS may affect behavior and mood by keeping patients involved in structured activities. By easing the problems faced by family caregivers, ADS use may also reduce use of health and long term care services. The proposed study will use a quasi-experimental, nonequivalent group design. People with dementia who are starting an ADS program and their caregivers will be compared to a control group not using these services. It is hypothesized that dementia patients using ADS will experience significant reductions in behavior problems and depressive symptoms over time, compared to controls. We also expect that caregivers in the ADS group will experience decreases in care-related stress and improved well-being, and will use fewer health and long-term care services than the control group. These changes will be mediated by improvements in their relative's behavior.