engleski

THE ROLES OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGISTS WORKING WITH INDIVIDUALS WITH DEMENTIA

Background In Croatia, dementia patients don’ t have methodically organize care and appropriate services that will benefit the individual and maximize cognitive-communication functioning at all stages of the disease process. Methods Most of the current treatment strategies for cognitive-language disorders common to dementia originated from clinical aphasia treatment models.Although treatments for aphasic disorders have been shown to be efficacious in general, they may be not be appropriate for treating the more global cognitive-language disorders in dementia. Treatment approaches have been developed to address the specific problems of dissolution of memory, reality, emotions and semantic content. Results Dementia patients need structure and routine for optimal performance. Stimulus materials should have saliency for the patient’ s daily living environment. Functional therapy enhance patient’ s ability to relate an object with daily activities within the home environment. Dementia patients communicate best in a face-to face client-patient encounter in a quiet, orderly environment. Conclusion Patients with dementia should be diagnosed with a variety of instruments for cognitive and language status. The goals for evaluation are to assess cognitive-language disorders, determine functional status, predict outcome, and monitor functional change. Rehabilitation strategies should be designed to enable the patient to remain independent as long as possible.

speech and language pathologist; dementia; communication; cognitive-language disorders

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