Implementation of the Functional Emotive Existential Therapy for the Caregivers and People with Alzheimer’s Disease Related Dementia

Abstract

The care of the dementia clients often takes negative tool to all the caregivers. Most of the time, they are affective, psychologically emotionally and spiritually leading to loss of meaning, most of the time severe depression bordering into psychopathological condition such as mood disorder and sometimes schizophrenia. The institute that was founded by Dr. Arnel Banaga Salgado implemented its psychosocial intervention called Functional Emotive Existential Therapy in two stages: (a) For the Caregiver, and (b) for the AD clients with dementia. The three main tasks of therapy are the following (Bugental, 1990): (a) to assist clients in recognizing that they are not fully present in the therapy process itself; (b) to support clients in confronting the anxieties that they have so long sought to avoid; and (c) to help client redefine themselves and their world in ways that foster greater genuineness of contact with life. The clients with dementia are otherwise responsive to the following phases of the program, (a) Functionality assessment and therapy, (b) Existential assessment and therapy, and (c) Emotional assessment and therapy. The results both for the caregivers and the clients are promising. After 30 days of implementing the FEET’s ABCDE modalities to the caregivers and to the patients with Alzheimer’s’ disease related dementia of various stages using GDS and MMSE, the caregivers showed positive signs of improvement particularly in terms of meaning development, diminishing the occurrence of depression, anxiety and other psychopathologic conditions arising from the care of their relatives with dementia. On the other hand, in terms of helping the client with dementia, the FEET therapy showed a positive improvement on the decrease of BPSD, increasing functionality, simple memory and finding meaning on their activities of daily living. The FEET should be implemented in other areas, including hospice care, assisted living or nursing homes.