The importance of the family training in the home care of demented patients

Fourty caregivers of demented patients attended for the first time a sequen ce of 8 formative meetings about senile mental decline. Five months later, a questionnaire was given to those caregivers on the occasion of a meeting planned both for that purpose and for a critical evaluation of the educator s of the same training course, on the basis of the gained experience. Analy sis of the answers given to the questionnaire revealed unanimously the impo rtance for the caregivers of demented persons to take part in a series of f ormative meetings of this kind. In fact, the meetings proved to be useful t o understand both the illness and the way of taking care of the demented su bjects. All the interviewed caregivers declared of having introduced change s in their way of taking care of their own sick persons, 74 % of them chang ed almost completely their approach, and declared to be satisfied with the consequent improvement inside the family: this regarded both the relationsh ips with others and the way of living of the demented persons. Ten caregive rs of that group established a direct mutual help relation in case of need and for relief. All the caregivers expressed the opinion that further perio dic meetings are necessary, in order to discuss or to exchange experiences about public and home assistance of the demented patients.