**4. Discussion**

Caring for a patient with dementia is demanding, whether in the form of home or institutionalized care. Many experts have devoted large periods of their professional

lives to studying care for patients with dementia, summarizing their knowledge and practical experience in theses as stated in the previous section. If we are concerned with the question of why the area of care for people with dementia is interesting for us, the answer is clear. Where pharmacological treatment is unsatisfactory and the actions and behaviour of the patient are impossible to control or predict, we search for opportunities to activate, stimulate, calm and fill time with meaningful activities. Doing nothing, lying in bed, wandering, negative moods and aggressive behaviour aggravate the overall condition of the patient and accelerate the progression of the disease. In addition to these important facts, it is important to remember the inability of a family carer or professional carer in institutionalized care to reverse this negative situation and do something extra for the sufferer. This is exactly how we see non-pharmacological approaches, which are based on a deep human principle. The experience of other professionals is extremely beneficial to those whom can be helped by these approaches to manage the actions and behaviour of patients and to arouse their interest. When working with relatives, we were deeply impressed by the approach of a daughter who was caring for her mother with Alzheimer's disease in her home environment. To the question: 'Why don't you put your mother in an old people's home, she doesn't know who you are anyway?' the daughter of the patient said, 'But *I* know who *she* is, she's my mother…'. Not everything can be quantified, verified or proven, so we continue to find new opportunities to improve the care of patients with dementia. The family or professional carer is the person who knows the patient very closely and chooses the approach that suits a particular patient. The conclusions of the experts are advisory, and the patient determines what is best. That is why care for a given patient can only ever be highly individualized.

The first empirical research into using therapeutic dolls for Alzheimer's disease was carried out in England in 2006. Later, further studies were performed and these confirmed a reduction in negative behaviour and wandering in patients, increased attention during contact with other people, increased food intake and improved mood [30].

Feil and de Klerk-Rubin proved their positive reactions by disoriented seniors.

If staff can create an atmosphere without conflict for their patients, and without the feeling that each thing has to be 'fought for' it means a lot to them. Another benefit to the patient is undoubtedly the fact that validation treats each person as a unique personality and respects them exactly as they are. This aspect applies in all spheres of the lives of seniors, starting with how they are spoken to [20].

Based on our findings, we can assume that the use of the psychobiographic model helps alleviate negative psychological phenomena, which is consistent with E. Böhm's assertions, and therefore the closer we approach the client with structured care, the more we reduce the many conflicting and hectic situations that lead to regression and pathological changes in client behaviour. Many studies have shown that increasing emotional stability leads to improvement of cognitive functions and conversely, decreasing emotional stability increases the progression of the cognitive deficit [25].

### **5. Conclusion**

Given the demographic evolution of the population, it is essential to focus on identifying risk factors, focusing on appropriate planning of health care at the primary secondary and tertiary level [3]. Until there is a drug available to eliminate the cause of the disease, we rely on current therapeutic procedures, including pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment and in the state of dependence not excluding care for the carer.

**89**

**Author details**

provided the original work is properly cited.

Terezia Fertalova\* and Iveta Ondriova

*Non-pharmacological Treatment of Alzheimer's DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84893*

of conditions for working with seniors.

The authors report no conflict of interest.

I thank to the Mgr. Adriana Gmitterová director of non-profit organization S.O.S. n.o., and to the Social services centre in Kruzľov for cooperation and creation

**Acknowledgements**

**Conflict of interest**

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

Department of Nursing, University of Presov, Presov, Slovak Republic

\*Address all correspondence to: terezia.fertalova@unipo.sk

*Non-pharmacological Treatment of Alzheimer's DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84893*
