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THE EFFECTS OF REARRANGING WARD ROUTINES ON COMMUNICATION AND EATING BEHAVIORS OF PSYCHOGERIATRIC PATIENTS
Author(s) -
Melin Lennart,
Götestam K Gunnar
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
journal of applied behavior analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1938-3703
pISSN - 0021-8855
DOI - 10.1901/jaba.1981.14-47
Subject(s) - psychology , conversation , meal , dementia , baseline (sea) , multiple baseline design , behaviour modification , nonverbal communication , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , communication , psychiatry , psychotherapist , medicine , intervention (counseling) , oceanography , disease , pathology , geology
Several aspects of ward routine were changed to study the effects of environmental manipulation on the behavior of 21 psychogeriatric patients. Furniture was rearranged to be more conducive to conversation (i.e., grouped around tables instead of along corridor walls), and mealtime routines were changed to allow patients more time to eat, more freedom in choosing the composition of the meal, and more pleasant surroundings. Patients were divided into experimental and control groups, and data were collected on the frequency of verbal and tactile communication and degree of skill in eating behavior. Following baseline, environmental changes were introduced across behaviors. Results show that the frequency of communication increased for the experimental group, as compared to both baseline and the control group. Eating behavior also improved significantly for the experimental group. The study shows that minor changes in the physical environment can promote therapeutic change in the behavior of patients diagnosed as senile dementia.