Welcome everyone to “Exploring the Seven Stages of Dementia.” Today you should all be able to identify the seven stages of dementia, and be able to discuss how the "staging" occurs and the background behind it. You should be able to discuss and elaborate on the impact of each stage on function, activities of daily living and occupations in an individual’s daily life. The third thing that you should be able to do is demonstrate an understanding of each stage and how it relates to evaluation and treatment in occupational therapy. I will give a sample of these intervention strategies throughout the stages and focus on certain types of treatment.
Learning Objectives
Identify the seven stages of dementia
Discuss the impact of each stage on function and activities of daily living
Demonstrate understanding of each stage as it relates to evaluation and treatment for occupational therapy
Dementia Staging
Depending on how new of a therapist you are, you might be thinking that there are three stages of dementia: mild, moderate and severe. Today we are going to be talking about seven stages. If you have not had some background on this, hopefully you will become more familiar with it today. Effective management of an individual that has dementia requires an in-depth look at not only the person’s impaired abilities, but most importantly, what are the spared or preserved capabilities that these residents have. By being able to place your client in a stage, it will help you to determine your intervention strategies.
Dementia staging has been found to have more validity and can identify pre-morbid conditions associated with the evolution of dementia that is not differentiated by other mental status or psychometric tests. Staging has been shown to also successfully track the latter 50% of the potential time course of dementias, such as Alzheimer's Disease (AD), more so than a typical mental status exam. It gives you a clearer idea of exactly what you are going to be doing to treat these residents....
