THE DAY-CARE-CENTER FOR DEMENTED PEOPLE - ORGANIZATION, PROGRAMS AND EVALUATION METHODS

Upon request of the families caring Alzheimer patients at home, a Day Care Center (DCC) was instituted in Florence (Italy), especially for d emented people with disturbing behavior. The task of DCC was, therefor e, to analyze, understand and work with these behavioral problems, in order to improve the well-being of the patients and to decrease the st ress of the families. The realization of this task has been possible f ocusing our attention on (i) the creation of a homelike environment in the DCC: (ii) the promotion of simple activities enabling the patient s to socialize and enjoy the company of each other; and (iii) the intr oduction of a continuous informal education for the staff. In the DCC, we intend to establish a research activity aimed at evaluating the ef fect of the treatment on the patients, the feelings of the families an d the stress on the care-giving staff.