A retrospective study of a multicomponent rehabilitation programme for community-dwelling persons with dementia and their caregivers

Introduction: This study determined whether the multicomponent rehabilitation programme of a memory clinic had positive outcomes on ameliorating everyday functioning, quality of life, mood and behavioural disturbances of persons with dementia and reducing distress and burden of caregivers. Method: A retrospective pre-test–post-test study without control group was conducted on the first cohort of persons with dementia (n = 30) and their caregivers (n = 30), who participated in a programme lasting for a maximum of 1 year with 25 1-hour counselling sessions. The assessment contained an evaluation of everyday functioning in basic, instrumental and advanced activities of daily living, cognition, mood, emotional and behavioural disturbances, quality of life and caregiver burden. Results: Eight participants dropped out prematurely. For persons with dementia (n = 22), participating in the programme did not improve everyday functioning and cognition but ameliorated quality of life significantly (Z = –2.7, p = 0.006, 95% CI (.003–.005)) and stabilized mood, emotional and behavioural disturbances for 60% or more of them. For caregivers (n = 22), the mild to moderate burden of care remained stable or got better for 63.6% of the caregivers. Conclusion: This programme appears to be promising and valuable, and might reduce institutionalization rates. Future explorations are recommended to research how participants evolve and to investigate which participants responded in a positive way.