Today we are going to talk about Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in Dementia Management. This is part 1 of a two-part series. Part Two is later in September. Today, we are going to do an overview of dementia types and current evidence-based practices, some of which utilize behavior management. I have no financial or nonfinancial relationships relevant to the content of this course. That means if I tell you about a treatment technique, test, or product, it is because I like it and I support it, not because I am going to make any money from it.
I dedicate this presentation and every presentation I do that has anything to do with dementia to my dad. He passed away on my birthday in February of 2011. He had frontotemporal degeneration. I like people to know that I have experience working with people with dementia from the professional side as a speech-language pathologist, but also from a personal perspective with my dad, with frontotemporal degeneration; and also my grandmother, who is still living and has Alzheimer’s.
Learning Outcomes
Our learning outcomes, as a result of this continuing education activity, are that participants will be able to explain differences in clinical manifestations of Alzheimer’s disease versus vascular dementia versus frontotemporal degeneration; identify at least three treatment methods that have been proven effective for adults with dementia in recent research studies; and describe the rationale for using various evidence-based treatment approaches for different dementia types.
We are going to discuss the dementia types and then address the evidence-based practices (EBP) focusing on direct treatments and indirect treatments. This information comes from the ASHA Compendiums. I will give an introduction to applied behavior analysis and how we can apply that to working with patients with dementia. Then I will do more of that in the second part of this presentation at a later date.
Dementia Types
Let’s start with an overview of the dementia types. Alzheimer’s is the most prevalent form of dementia. Vascular dementia is typically always listed in the top three.
I included frontotemporal degeneration because I have the personal connection to that. I also think that many of us are seeing this type more and more. We have younger patients that have a dementia diagnosis; sometimes it is not specifically frontotemporal degeneration, but there are patients with a more general dementia, with behavioral disturbances. They are not the typical long-term care dementia patients that we are used to, where the disease takes the course of Alzheimer’s disease. These are people who have issues that are really behavioral in nature, and I thought that it was an important dementia to touch upon in this discussion.
