OT and Alzheimer's Disease

Up until recently, the realm of cognitive impairment has been intimidating to me as an OTA student. We recently had an in-depth classroom lecture and video on dementia and a competency where we were graded on our interaction with a patient suffering from dementia. I received positive feedback from my teachers and was surprised at the ease I felt when working with this patient. The feedback from the teachers as well as my newfound understanding of OT's role in working with these patients has caused me to become very interested in this practice area. I sought out articles this week regarding Alzheimer's disease and found a very interesting one on a Dutch study done regarding OT's influence on the AD patient's quality of life. The study found that OT sessions drastically influenced the functional level of the patient and the coping of the caregiver. According to the study, the involvement necessary by OT staff to affect this level of change is one that very few U.S. nursing homes are able to provide. The most significant finding, in my opinion, though, is that the decrease in close attention needed by the patient at home due to the OT interventions significantly decreases the total health care bill, in essence absorbing the cost of the treatments while dramatically increasing the quality of life of patients and caregivers. Here is the link to the brief article: http://mlive.com/health/index.ssf/2009/03/occupational_therapy_sessions.html