Training Area Agencies on Aging Case Managers to Improve Physical Function, Mood, and Behavior in Persons With Dementia and Caregivers: Examples from the RDAD-Northwest Study.

The Reducing Disability in Alzheimer's Disease (RDAD) program has been shown to be an effective tool for teaching caregivers strategies to improve mood, behavior, and physical function in persons with dementia. This paper describes how RDAD has been translated and implemented for use by Area Agencies on Aging (AAA) case managers across Washington and Oregon. Modifications to the original RDAD program as part of its community translation included decreasing the number of in-person sessions while preserving all educational content; involving caregivers in exercise activities for themselves as well as acting as exercise coaches for care-receivers; and enrolling persons with cognitive impairment due to mixed etiologies.

Managing sleep disturbances in adult family homes: recruitment and implementation of a behavioral treatment program.

This article describes a sleep education program (SEP) designed to teach owner/operators and direct-care staff working in adult family homes (AFHs) how to improve the sleep and nighttime behavior of older residents with dementia. There have been no sleep intervention studies conducted in AFHs, and strategies that are known to improve sleep in community-dwelling older adults or nursing home residents may not be feasible or effective in AFHs because of their unique care environment. The SEP was developed on the basis of experiences treating sleep disturbances in community-dwelling older adults with dementia (the Nighttime Insomnia Treatment and Education in Alzheimer's Disease study).