This was a very interesting post on one of my Linkedin groups

made by Jackie Pool from over int he UK.

I have gotten permission to repost.

Please let us know your thoughts!

Can Cognitive Rehabilitation lead to ‘Rementia’?

I am privileged to be involved with a large Cognitive Rehabilitation study which is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to determine if early intervention offers the possibility of helping people with early-stage dementia and their carers to manage the impact of Alzheimer’s disease on their everyday life and reduce or delay the progression of disability.

My role as an Occupational Therapist is to train and supervise the OTs who will be delivering the Cognitive Rehabilitation approaches at 6 sites across the UK over 3 years. Participants in the study will be choosing meaningful goals that they wish to achieve.

I am hoping that the outcomes will provide us with evidence that it is possible to work with people with dementia and the ‘plasticity’ of the brain to educate new brain cell pathways to replace damaged ones. I have certainly seen many instances where people I have worked with have improved in both cognition and function and some years ago, Tom Kitwood (of whose work many of you will know) and I discussed this in the context of ‘rementia’

Of course we cannot second guess the outcomes of our study but I wonder if anyone has got any anecdotal evidence of how focused therapeutic interventions have helped individuals to improve – or to maintain their skills for longer than might have been expected?

Can we in our LinkedIn Dementia Champions group raise the profile of what is possible and share this message?

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June 4th at 11am EST 10am CST, 8am PST, 4pm London

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