Activity based Alzheimer care: A National Trining Program

Abstract

Requests from Alzheimer Association chapters, the general public and subsequent focus groups from around the country articulated a strong need for a standardized, education and training curriculum for activity providers in programs for those who have dementia. The current practices for training and service delivery were defined, target audiences for training were determined, and content areas for growth and development were identified. A curriculum was developed and pilot tested with 285 activity providers in five locations across the country. An assessment for knowledge of content was administered before and after the curriculum was delivered at each site to determine curriculum effectiveness in content delivery. With a possible score of 30-points, a statistical comparison between the pilot pre-test (Mean = 22.888) and post-test (Mean = 25.044) revealed a significant difference at .000 level of confidence. Scores were higher after participation than before participation in the curriculum. Participants indicated that the curriculum met learning objectives either completely or reasonably well. The curriculum will be further refined and available for wide use in the near future.