Dementia Occupational Therapy Assessment and Treatment

Dementia Assessment
and Treatment

Dementia Occupational Therapy: HERE’S HOW An O.T. MAY HELP YOU With Personalised Dementia Assessment, Treatment and Support

Why is an OT dementia assessment important?

Should you get an occupational therapy dementia assessment? How will occupational therapy for dementia help me?

We often hear people raise these questions because no doubt they’re worried about what will be found.

No one wants a diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease but being aware of how dementia affects your cognitive function means you can design solutions around it.

An Occupational therapy dementia assessment is the start line to help you live life better.  We’re able to work with people under a variety of programs from self funded, private health insurance , to the NDIS or home care services.

Dementia Occupational Therapy: On this page we answer

It’s clear there is often a large time gap between the onset of symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of someone living with dementia. In some cases the treatment occurs far too late.

We’d like to close this gap.

Why Is An Occupational Therapy Dementia Assessment Important?

Cognitive function decline is often referred to by people as the hidden or invisible symptoms of dementia. On the face of it – everything looks ok but there’s a progressive decline. 

It may start off affecting a person’s executive function. These are skills such as problem solving and judgment for example.  Over time continual changes in a person’s brain erodes their performance to do everyday tasks and may also result behaviour and personality changes. So in short dementia symptoms can profoundly impact a person’s:  

DEMENTIA ASSESSMENT IMPORTANT?

Getting a memory health check up early helps define your cognitive strengths and weakness and what you can do about protecting and maintaining them. It makes sense when you consider:

Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Sadly, a person living with cognitive decline and their families may experience a period of prolonged distress due to dementia symptoms especially dealing with dementia behaviours.

That’s why our dementia occupational therapy services exist, to help people live and thrive despite the memory and thinking changes.  We’re able to do so by following a rigorous process of

What Is A Dementia Assessment?

Whether it’s investigating a specific dementia disease type such as;

  • Alzheimer’s assessment
  • Frontotemporal dementia assessment
  • Vascular dementia assessment 
  • Lewy Body dementia assessment

A diagnosis of dementia is the domain of your doctor. 

Your G.P or specialist is likely to request a brain scan like a MRI or SPECT as well as laboratory tests. The diagnosis is based on your symptoms and assessment results. This may take upto 6 months to complete.

You can expect the dementia occupational therapy assessment to complement your doctor consultation.  An OT is trained to offer you ways to improve your function and quality of life when living with dementia.

Schedule Dementia Occupational Therapy Brisbane

What Is An Occupational Therapy Assessment For Dementia?

Regardless of the diagnosis, your occupational therapy assessment process evaluates your symptoms of dementia and builds a map of your strengths, challenges, opportunities and threats. This covers:

Sounds like a lot doesn’t it?

Our view is that it’s one syndrome, many diseases with many symptoms. So, the value of a solid and personalised assessment helps prioritise practical actions. 

In short, your occupational therapist helps with care planning and treatment which is tailored to your goals.  At the end of the day, your OT is there to help sustain and improve your ability to do the tasks which are important in your life – whatever that is.

WHAT IS A DEMENTIA ASSESSMENT?

What Happens At An Occupational Therapy Dementia Assessment

Firstly, the initial assessment underpins your therapy program. At our memory health clinic or via online therapy you can complete a functional assessment.

In this consultation we ask you to bring

Occupational Therapy Dementia Assessment Tools

You might have heard of some of the OT Cognitive Assessments For Dementia already. Here’s a sample of the common assessment tools that Occupational Therapists and General Practitioners may use. Some are screening tools others are rating scales . The reason these memory assessments are used is to help identify cognitive impairment or to track changes over time. 

Yes there is alot – but which one is right OT Assessment for Dementia? 

That said, there is no one “best dementia assessment tool“. If you decide to work with us you’ll hear us speak about your “task or goal” determines the right test and team.

You can expect your dementia occupational therapy program to include tools to help track your changes over time and we can deploy these online as well.

This can include diaries to monitor;

Lastly, we’ll often complete a home consultation as well can be completed at home, in clinic or online. 

dementia assessment tool

The Potential Benefits Of An Accurate Occupational Therapy Dementia Assessment

It’s clear that dementia impacts your brain but it is when a person’s daily living skills decline that we start to be aware of the disease symptoms.
In the end the goal is to help a person living with dementia and their family be more informed of evidenced based smart actions to help with day to day living and to reduce the impact of disease on the quality of your life. 
EVIDENCE OF OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY FOR DEMENTIA

Evidence of Occupational Therapy For Dementia

Findings from a 2019 systematic review of OT programs for people living with dementia analysed the outcomes of 15 studies involving 2063 participants. The researchers concluded

“…occupational therapy provided at home may improve a range of important outcomes for people with dementia and their family carers. Health professionals could consider referring them for occupational therapy.”

Bennett et al (2019).

Occupational Therapy For Dementia: Is There A Right Time To Start?

In the comprehensive guide “Think You Parent Has Dementia? (Therapist Shares What To Do), David our senior therapist highlights that more often than not we wait far too long before acting on symptoms. In fact most people wait until there are significant life challenges before reaching out to therapy services. We encourage people to get in touch sooner rather than later.

That said

Brisbane support for people with Dementia and their

It’s clear that OT is can be a key support for people with Dementia and their families. 

You can expect your OT to work with you to maximise your independence in essential day-to-day activities. At OT Brisbane we do this through assessment of a person’s day to day life, covering their habits and routines and to prioritise on the one they want to maintain, protect or work on.

Therapy is often very practical and related to those activities which are important to you. 

Occupational Therapy For Dementia Stages: Services and Programs At OT Brisbane

The dementia therapy services and programs offers practical strategies to help you live well.

You can expect programs which are backed by gold standard evidence as outlined by LANCET, ACTIVE and FINGER studies as well as practice guidelines developed and or supported by leading agencies such as Dementia Collaborative Research Centre, Dementia Australia,  Association of Lifestyle Medicine and Neuroscience Research Australia and Occupational Therapy Australia.

Occupational Therapy And Dementia Services Available In Brisbane: WorkS With You and Your Team

If you’re looking for an OT for your clients with dementia,  our occupational therapists can help you and your health and home care services providers on a case by case situation. You can also access education events tailored to your care support team’s development needs.

So How Can We Help You?

Living with dementia or caring for a family member experiencing dementia can be difficult. A registered occupational therapist will visit you at home, assess, plan and treat and teach you how to:

How Can We Help You?

Please fill out the short form below and tell us how can we best help you? One of our team members will reach out when it comes through.

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