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October 8, 2001
A Canadian team of researchers have tested and validated the first Safety Assessment Scale for People with Dementia Living at Home (S.A.S.). This test is designed to help caregivers make a more objective assessment of the risk of domestic accidents that may result from an Alzheimer’s disease patient’s declining mental ability.
When comparing the results of the assessment, caregivers can intervene to diminish potential risks. With the new SAS tool, they now have an instrument that allows them to determine precisely the level of care and services needed to make sure that the highest number of people with memory and cognitive deficits can safely stay at home for a longer period of time.
"Health professionals have long wished for an objective way of evaluating the dangers incurred by people with memory and cognitive deficits living alone at home," says Dr. Louise Poulin de Courval, McGill Professor of Family Medicine, family doctor and researcher at the CLSC Côte-des-Neiges.
Over the last three years, Dr. Poulin de Courval in cooperation with other health professionals delivered home care programs in CLSCs, daycare centers and hospitals in Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia. The SAS was tested and validated among 175 patients in English and French, in both urban and rural areas.
"Thanks to the SAS," says McGill neurologist Serge Gauthier, an expert in Alzheimer's disease and a member of Dr. Poulin de Courval's research team, "physicians, nurses, family helpers, social workers, physiotherapists and occupational therapists can now evaluate in a few minutes the risks of accidents in any particular home."
The assessment scale has nothing to do with a check-list. As Dr. Poulin de Courval explains, "Whether answering the 32 questions of the scale's long version, or the 19 questions of the abridged version, caregivers ponder their answers. When, for example, they are asked ' is this person alone at home,' by picking their choice of ' Always, Most of the time, Occasionally, or Never,' they necessarily assess the risk incurred."
Click here to view the Saftey Assesment Scale
If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, click here.
Safety Assesment Scale was provided by: CLSC Côte-des-Neiges
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