A survey of daycare facilities for dementia people in Japan

Tohmi Osaki¹⁾²⁾, Kiyoshi Maeda²⁾

¹⁾Medical Center for Dementia, Kobe University Hospital
²⁾Kobegakuin University School of Comprehensive Rehabilitation

Over 50 thousands of demented people stay in mental hospitals in Japan. The average period of stay in the mental hospitals of these elderly is about 2 years. Daycare facilities are considered to be used to facilitate early discharge from mental hospitals. We conducted a survey to clarify demographics of demented elderly using daycare facilities for dementia people in Japan. The questionnaire was sent to 189 daycare facilities for dementia people in Japan, and 67 questionnaires (35.4%) were sent back. Seventy % of the facilities were attached to mental hospitals. The average age of the users was 80.4 y.o. and 2/3 of the users were females. The average day to use was 4.2/week. The levels of care needed were that 25.8% was level 3, 21.6% was level 2, 19.6% was level 1 and 13.4% was level 4. Seventy % of the users were with Alzheimer's disease. The average score of Mini Mental State Examination was 13.2 and 87.3% of these people had at least one behavioral and psychotic symptoms of dementia (BPSD). One third of the people were administered with at least one of various antipsychotics to manage BPSD. OTR considered that OT was beneficial to manage BPSD.

Address correspondence to Dr. Kiyoshi Maeda, Department of Kobegakuin University School of Comprehensive Rehabilitation (518 Arise, Ikawadani-cho, Nishi-ku, Kobe 651-2180, Japan)