Animal Assisted Intervention In Dementia - 1411 Words

The quasi-experimental study will be longitudinal and evaluative in nature, evaluating the effectiveness of AAI in persons with dementia over a span of three years. The researcher will seek to follow two hundred dementia patients over 65 over the course of three years, evaluating the impact of Animal-Assisted Intervention, in the form of fish aquariums, on their quality of life and mental state. Participants will be selected that are over 65 and have had a diagnosis of dementia for at least a year. Cluster sampling will be used to select patients from 10 Dallas Fort Worth area nursing homes or memory care facilities. Nursing homes and memory care facilities used in the study will be selected to represent a variety of socio-economic and†¦show more content†¦Additionally, even when animal-assisted therapy is done by volunteers, the required facility staff can make it a drain on resources. By comparison, beta fish and their small tanks are inexpensive and require little attenti on by staff. By assigning fish to individual participants, they are able to spend a lot of time in the presence of their fish and feel a sense of ownership and even companionship. Additionally, the researcher hopes that the responsibility of feeding their fish will foster a sense of autonomy and self-sufficiency for participants. Researchers will record the weight of all participants, and administer the geriatric depression scale (GDS) and the Mini mental state evaluation (MMSE) to all participants. These instruments will target three areas of quality of life as identified by the researcher: physical well-being, mood and mental health, and cognitive functioning. Data Collection Weight will be recorded at the beginning of the study for all participants and the mini mental state evaluation and geriatric depression scale will be administered for initial scoring. 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