‘EACH DAY CAN BE A GOOD DAY’: IMPLEMENTATION AND BENEFITS REPORTED ABOUT A PILOT OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY TRAINING PROGRAM FOR CAREGIVERS OF PEOPLE WITH DEMENTIA IN CHILE

Abstract

Chile is the first Latin-American country with a national plan for dementia care, but the research related to interventions in caregivers is very limited. This study pretends to know the implementation and benefits reported by caregivers of people with dementia who participated of a pilot Occupational therapy program. A qualitative analysis of the implementation and benefits reported by 9 caregiver's participants of the program was conducted. “Each day can be a good day” is a pilot group training program for family caregivers of people with mild to moderate dementia, guided by an Occupational therapist. An initial interview and 4 sessions based on the “readiness” theoretical framework in family caregivers of people with dementia of Rose & Gitlin (2014) were made, considering this themes: description of disease, problem solving in daily situations, and carrying out activities. At the same time, a workshop focused on activities for the care recipient was conducted. At the end of the program, a focus group was done to know the satisfaction with implementation aspects and benefits reported, analysing thematic areas according to “positive aspects” and “improvement opportunities” through a content analysis. For the implementation, the positive aspects were (Table 1): being able to go with the care recipient, the presence of a professional who guide in the learning, and practical activities. The improvement opportunities were: the need of practice on real situations, and the constant learning reinforcement instances. Fort the reported benefits, the positive aspects were: improve in knowledge and understanding of the care recipient and my emotions, incorporation of new strategies for caregiving, and resignification of the caregiver role. The improvement opportunities were: the rest of my family is a new challenge, and more training in carrying out activities with the person with dementia. The program was beneficial for improve the knowledge and confident sensation of the caregivers. It is important to consider the person with dementia, a health professional guiding the training, and more possibilities for practice the strategies. Interventions with the rest of the family and tailored training for carrying out activities with the care recipient were identified as main needs.