Frans Hoogeveen

Video Prompting Versus Other Instruction Strategies for Persons With Alzheimer’s Disease

Background/Aim: Two studies assessed the effectiveness of video prompting as a strategy to support persons with mild and moderate Alzheimer’s disease in performing daily activities. Methods: In study I, video prompting was compared to an existing strategy relying on verbal instructions. In study II, video prompting was compared to another existing strategy relying on static pictorial cues. Video prompting and the other strategies were counterbalanced across tasks and participants and compared within alternating treatments designs. Results: Video prompting was effective in all participants. Similarly effective were the other 2 strategies, and only occasional differences between the strategies were reported. Two social validation assessments showed that university psychology students and graduates rated the patients’ performance with video prompting more favorably than their performance with the other strategies. Conclusion: Video prompting may be considered a valuable alternative to the other strategies to support daily activities in persons with Alzheimers disease.

Comparing two different orientation strategies for promoting indoor traveling in people with Alzheimer's disease

The present study compared two different types of orientation strategies: an assistive technology program (AT, i.e., remotely controlled sound/light devices) and a backward chaining procedure (BC) for promoting indoor traveling in four persons with moderate to severe Alzheimers disease (AD). A social validation assessment of the two strategies was also conducted employing undergraduate students as raters. For three out of four participants, AT intervention was more effective than the BC procedure, whilst for the fourth participant the two types of intervention had a comparably satisfying efficacy. A doubly Multivariate Analysis of Variance on social validation assessment data provided generally more positive scores for the AT intervention. These results suggest that AT programs (a) can be valuably employed for restoring and maintaining independence in indoor traveling in people with moderate to severe AD, and (b) might be perceived as preferable to conventional teaching strategies within daily contexts.

Quality of life in dementia: do professional caregivers focus on the significant domains?

The domains of quality of life that are considered important by people with dementia and professional caregivers are not in agreement. This explorative study addresses the question, “To what degree do professional caregivers, in their daily working routine, focus on the quality-of-life domains that people with dementia consider essential?” Study participants were nursing assistants who work in 24-hour nursing home care and professionals who offer daytime activities. Three hundred and seventy-four caregivers working on 29 units and 3 day care facilities of 13 nursing homes and in 12 meeting centers filled out a questionnaire. The caregivers reported to focus at least to some degree on most domains considered important by people with dementia. However, relatively little attention was paid to “financial situation” and “being useful/giving meaning to life.” Professionals who offer daytime activities focused more than 24-hour care staff on “attachment,” “enjoyment of activities,” “sense of aesthetics,” and “being useful/giving meaning to life.”

Intervention strategies for spatial orientation disorders in dementia: A selective review

Purpose: This article provides a brief overview of the intervention strategies aimed at reducing spatial orientation disorders in elderly people with dementia. Methods: Eight experimental studies using spatial cues, assistive technology programs, reality orientation training, errorless learning technique, and backward chaining programs are described. They can be classified into two main approaches: restorative and compensatory, depending on whether they rely or not on residual learning ability, respectively. Results: A review of the efficacy of these intervention strategies is proposed. Results suggest that both compensatory and restorative approaches may be valuable in enhancing correct way-finding behavior, with various degrees of effectiveness. Some issues concerning (a) variability in participants’ characteristics and experimental designs and (b) practicality of intervention strategies do not permit to draw a definite conclusion. Conclusions: Future research should be aimed at a direct comparison between these two strategies, and should incorporate an extensive neuropsychological assessment of spatial domain.

Italians do it worse. Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) optimal cut-off scores for people with probable Alzheimer’s disease and with probable cognitive impairment

Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) is a test providing a brief screening for people with cognitive impairment due to aging or neurodegenerative syndromes. In Italy, as in the rest of the world, several validation studies of MoCA have been carried out. This study compared, for the first time in Italy, a sample of people with probable Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) with healthy counterparts. The study also compared two community-dwelling groups of aged participants with and without probable cognitive impairment, as discriminated by two cut-off points of adjusted MMSE score. All the comparisons were carried out according to ROC statistics. Optimal cutoff for a diagnosis of probable AD was a MoCA score ≤14. Optimal cutoff for the discrimination of probable cognitive impairment was a MoCA score ≤17 (associated to MMSE cutoff of 23.8). Results confirm the substantial discrepancy in cut-off points existing between Italian and other international validation studies, showing that Italian performance on MoCA seems to be globally lower than that in other Countries. Characteristics of population might explain these results.

Ik ben hier nu toch

SamenvattingNico Köhler is 62 jaar oud. Op zijn vijfentwintigste trouwde hij met Marian. Samen hebben ze drie volwassen dochters: Nicolette, Suzanne en Marjolein. Nico is energiek en enorm actief, zowel beroepsmatig als maatschappelijk en sociaal. Tot op 20 december 2012 het noodlot toeslaat. Nico wordt ziek naar huis gestuurd, enkele maanden later volgt de diagnose: ‘corticobasale degeneratie’ (CBD), een zeldzame hersenziekte die tot dementie leidt. Wat gebeurt er dan met je? Frans Hoogeveen sprak met Nico, zijn vrouw Marian en zijn dochter Suzanne.

Wat heerlijk om zo bij te je liggen

SamenvattingBij seksualiteit en dementie denken we al snel aan seksuele gedragsproblematiek. Denkbeeld schreef daar dit jaar al over in het februarinummer. Ditmaal belichten Frans Hoogeveen en Hugo van Waarde de andere kant van de zaak: dat intimiteit en seksualiteit basisbehoeften zijn, ook van mensen met dementie. En dat dergelijke behoeften daarom niet kunnen worden ontkend of simpelweg als problematisch kunnen worden bestempeld.

Radio Remember: Internetradio voor mensen met dementie

SamenvattingMuziek kan een drager zijn van herinneringen en emoties. In onze jeugd en vroege volwassenheid ontwikkelen we onze persoonlijke muzieksmaak. Voor mensen met dementie, meestal 80-plussers, is dat ruim zestig jaar geleden. Voor hen is er nu een online muziekstation dat muziek uit die periode draait: Radio Remember.

Doe uit dat gejengel

SamenvattingWij zijn twee verzorgenden op een afdeling voor mensen met dementie in een Haags verpleeghuis. Op de afdeling wonen twaalf mensen, onder wie drie met een Turkse achtergrond. Onze bewoners houden van de muziek uit hun jonge jaren en daar spelen wij op in. Maar als we ook eens Turkse muziek aanzetten, protesteren de anderen dat ‘dat gejengel uit moet’. Ook hun familie maakt er opmerkingen over. En dat terwijl onze Turkse bewoners er erg van genieten en met elkaar gaan zingen en dansen! Wat zou u doen?

‘El jarig, maar overleden!’

SamenvattingWanneer Dieuwke Janssen van Raay-Robertson dementie krijgt, gaat zij op een gegeven moment een dagboek bijhouden om greep te krijgen op wat zij zelf haar ‘absences’ noemt. Ook na verhuizing naar verpleeghuis Oostduin van de Haagse zorgorganisatie Florence, in november 2015, blijft ze dat doen. Op 16 juni 2016 overlijdt ze daar met hulp van haar huisarts. Frans Hoogeveen sprak met dochters Carien en Beate over hun bijzondere moeder en het unieke document dat zij heeft nagelaten.