Schols Jos M G A, van der Schriek-van Meel Conny
Department Tranzo, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2006 Sep;7(7):456-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jamda.2006.05.011. Epub 2006 Jul 26.
Long-term care for demented patients in the Netherlands is changing. The focus is now more on quality of life and delaying institutionalization by offering substitutes to the traditional nursing home. In this article, we present a new type of day care, offered on a small dairy farm setting.
A small observational study was performed to get a first impression of the effects of care farm day care on demented patients. Also, global comparisons were made between patients attending day care in the farm setting and patients attending regular day care in a nursing home.
Demented patients attending day care on the farm showed fewer behavioral problems, used, on average, fewer drugs, including psychotropic drugs, and were more actively involved in normal daily activities. Moreover, family caregivers were more satisfied with this new type of day care.
Currently, there is only a scant amount of information to support the therapeutic effects of day care in farm settings. This experience indicates a positive trend of this new form of day care. Well-designed longitudinal follow-up studies are needed to provide more substantial evidence of positive patient outcomes in this new care setting.
