Social Participation Program for Older Adults with Dementia Residing in Long Term Care Facilities

Abstract

Social participation is characterized by activities that involve social interaction with others and supports social interdependence; individuals engage in this occupation through a variety of contexts including with their community, family, friends, and peers (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2020). Social participation has been discovered to influence general health and well-being, cognitive health, risk of dementia, and stress (Sommerlad et al., 2023). Dementia is a prevalent disease affecting approximately 50 million individuals worldwide (Sommerlad et al., 2023) causing increased dependence and disability among the older adult population and is shown to be growing as the aging population increases in number (Wang et al., 2023). The aim of this capstone project is to create a program to promote social participation between older adults with dementia in long term care (LTC) settings to improve occupational engagement and quality of life. Through the implementation of this capstone program, older adults with dementia residing in LTC settings will engage in structured group activities in familiar social contexts to improve their occupational engagement and further improve their quality of life through this experience.