Description du fonctionnement d'une unité Alzheimer en EHPAD

At a moderately severe stage of Alzheimer disease, cognitive decline seriously affects the everyday life of a patient. Psychosocial repercussions of cognitive disease and particularly communication disorders can be disastrous for quality of life of an Alzheimer patient at this stage of the disease. So, we can understand that in a nursing home, residents at this stage of the disease benefit from a routine in life habits and from a constant presence of a staff member. Main objectives of this unit are: 1) autonomy preservation and 2) physical and mental well-being. We apply three methods developed to providing care for patients with dementia: 1) Humanitude by Gineste and Marescotti; 2) Validation therapy by Naomi Feil; 3) the Montessori method for persons with dementia. In this paper, we describe the functioning of our Alzheimer unit. This accompaniment seems to be effective in our establishment and well adapted to persons affected by Alzheimer's disease at a moderately severe stage. However it appears necessary to conduct studies in order to provide statistical proof for the efficacy of our accompaniment.