An Activity-Based Intervention for Caregivers and Residents with Dementia in Nursing Homes

An activity-based intervention was shown to be effective in improving the quality of visits between family caregivers and their relatives with dementia in nursing homes. Families used a series of activity kits in visits with their relatives over a period of twelve weeks and rated the types of activities in the kits on their effectiveness in improving the quality of the visits. Activity kits that contained foam jigsaw puzzles or a reminiscence theme that either contained sing-along audio tapes of music of the past or asked questions relating to the past were found to be more helpful and enjoyable than kits that contained physical activities, card games, or audio tapes with sounds of the past.