The effects of a leisure activity visitation training program on the visitor's perceived satisfaction of visits with individuals with dementia related diseases including Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

A leisure activity visitation training program (LAVTR Program) was developed in order to identify the effects of the visitors' perceived satisfaction of the visits with residents with dementia related diseases including Alzheimer's disease (DM-AD) . Participants (N = 11) voluntarily participated in the 3 hr training program. The visits of the participants were studied for 4 wk periods prior to and directly after the training program. Through the data collected from the Visitor Questionnaire Forms, the participant evaluation forms, and the Miller Social Intimacy Scale, the study was based on a collection of single subject designs. Several findings support that a change in the visitors knowledge and use of leisure activities occurred during visits after participation in the LAVTR program. The percentage of visits that were identified as "a lot" of satisfaction increased after the training: 67% pretraining (I0 of 15) and 75% (12 of 16) posttraining. After the training, 8 of the 11 participants used new leisure activities during visits that were not used prior to the training.