Challenging the paraprofessional: developing an in-home activities program for the demented home care client.

Individuals with Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia frequently require little more than custodial care, which can often be performed by a family caregiver. As a result, homemaker-home health aides, engaged primarily for respite care, enter situations where there is little to do in terms of traditional homemaker-home health aide duties. In an effort to increase job satisfaction for employees and provide a benefit for clients, AL-CAR*E has developed an in-home therapeutic activities program for demented clients that is conducted in each client's home by the homemaker-home health aide.