Authors (including presenting author) :
Cheung SS(1), Jim CH(1), Yip KY(1), Hui CY(1), Chan Y(1), Chiu PF(1), Au KM(1)
Affiliation :
(1) Occupational Therapy Department, Tai Po Hospital
Introduction :
The benefit of cognitive stimulation therapy (CST) in supporting cognitive function and improving quality of life for people with dementia were well recognized (Coen et al., 2011; Lobbia et al., 2019). However, limited studies had been done to investigate the mental well-being for people with dementia or other diagnosis after CST.
Objectives :
To investigate the effect of CST program on the cognitive ability and mental well-being of psychogeriatric patients with dementia or mental illness.
Methodology :
Participants and Program: Older adults with schizophrenia, mood disorder or dementia were recruited to participate in the CST program. The 14-session program ran for 45 min per session over 14 days. Each group included 4 participants. It was designed using the theoretical concepts of reality orientation and cognitive stimulation (Spector et al.,2017). Outcome Measures: The Chinese Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (C-SWEMWBS) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) were used to assess mental well-being and cognitive ability respectively in the pre- and post-treatment periods. A post session self-report questionnaire using 5-point Likert scale was conducted. Statistical Analyses: All statistical analyses were conducted in SPSS (IBM Corporation).
Result & Outcome :
The program was started in March 2021 and reviewed in November 2021. A total of 16 participants (Dementia: n=7; Schizophrenia: n=3; Mood disorder: n=6) completed the program. Paired sample t-test showed that participants’ cognition was maintained although no significant improvement was shown in MoCA (t=0.173, p=0.865). For mental well-being, Wilcoxon signed rank test showed that participants had an improved sense of usefulness (z=-2.810, p=0.005) and felt that they were more able to make decisions (z=-2.495, p=0.013,) after the program as shown in C-SWEMWBS. The self-report questionnaire showed that more than 50% of the participants rated score 5 in “interest to each session” and “mood” which represented that they were very interested in the sessions and maintained a very pleasant mood during the program. The results were encouraging that CST might offer additional benefits, such as maintaining a person’s cognition and improving mental well-being, not only for people with dementia, but also with severe mental illness or mood disorder. More research was needed to further investigate the effectiveness and long-term effect of CST programs with larger sample sizes and different diagnostic backgrounds.
