Barrier free and quality of life for the dementia aged people.

2001 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 12670375
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Public health/Health science
• Research Institution: Fukuoka University
• Principal Investigator: FUKUSHIMA Tetsuhito School of medicine, Fukuoka University Professor, 医学部, 助教授 (90208942)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): NAGAHATA Koji Fukushima Univ. Administration & Social Sci. Associate Professor, 行政社会学部, 助教授 (50312765) ; KAETSU Akihiko Tottori Univ. Faculty of Medicine, Assist, 医学部, 助手 (70248483) ; MORIYAMA Masaki School of Medicine, Fukuoka University Professor, 医学部, 教授 (10145229)
• Project Period (FY): 2000 – 2001
• Keywords: dementia / old people / barrier free / quality of life / communication / sound / memory

Research Abstract

In Izumo City, Japan, there is a day care facility, where the elders with dementia are trying to recover their confidence for living by participating the psychodrama. According to our observation for the elders suffering from dementia of middle to severe degrees, these elders have developed their unique sense of humor in spite of their dementia under the barrier free circumstances. Li the course of day care, troubles which occurred from the anxiety or confusion under the initial inadequate circumstances disappear, and a humanistic confidence toward themselves and their environment appears. According to the testimonies of their families, suffering from dementia was supposed to be a trigger that revealed these elders' hidden humanity. The acceptance of the elder's memory disturbance by both their families and the elders themselves further encouraged these elders to get out of the initial trouble, recur and activate their original humanistic sense. As for the care providers, the acceptanc e and fecilitation of this dynamic process between elders and their supporting families is very important. Although living with happiness now is important for the elders with dementia, the more important is the confidence toward the future status of dementia to improve the humanistic quality of life.
When we discuss about improvement of living environments for people affected by dementia, we must not ignore effect of sounds for them. To reveal effect of sounds for people affected by dementia, we attempt to investigate what kinds of sounds are recollected clearly by them, as a first stage of investigation. The outline of our investigation is shown as below. In the course of group care, a care leader shows a large card in which an onomatopoeia is written. Then, elders suffering from dementia of middle to severe degrees and care staffs read aloud the onomatopoeia several times to imagine what kind of sound the onomatopoeia indicates. After that, elders freely tell what they imagine. The following results are obtained from this investigation : (1) Generally speaking, nature sounds, like songs of birds and sound of rain are recollected easily from onomatopoeias regardless of sex. (2) Sounds of kitchen work are recollected by women. (3) Sounds of their old custom are recollected clearly. (4) Sounds that pull at elders' heartstring intensely on account of relation to their life history are also recollected intensely from onomatopoeias. These results show that elders suffering from dementia can easily recollect the sounds that had been once very familiar to them.