Objective
To investigate the effect of the DementiAbility Methods: The Montessori Way™ (DMMW) on agitation in long term care home residents with dementia. The activities using the DMMW are hypothesized to reduce agitation in terms of its frequency and disruptiveness to greater extent than structured social activities as control.
Methods
Forty‐six long‐term care home residents with dementia were randomly allocated to receive the DMMW (n=23) or structured social activities as control (n=23). Each participant received 6 intervention sessions of 45 minutes each within 2 weeks, at long‐term care home. Agitation in terms of frequency and disruptiveness before and after the intervention were compared.
Results
The results showed that the DMMW resulted in significant reduction in overall frequency and disruptiveness of agitation. The DMMW group had significant reduction in frequency and disruptiveness of verbal aggressive, physical non‐aggressive and physical aggressive behaviors after the intervention.
Conclusions
In summary, the present findings support the potential of the DMMW as a safe and efficacious therapeutic intervention for addressing agitation in long‐term care home residents with dementia, relevant to Hong Kong culture.