DID YOU KNOW THAT THIS IS THE SECOND RESEARCH STUDY PUBLISHED IN FINLAND?

SEINÄJOKI UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES
THESIS ABSTRACT


Faculty: Social- and Health Care Department
Degree programme: Bachelor of Social Services
Authors: Peltokangas, Eija and Rantala, Marjaana

Title of the thesis: Enriching the daily life in a service center for demented people through the TTAP Method©.

Year: 2009 Number of pages: 75 Number of appendices: 1

Thesis was made as an action research in a service center for demented people, Kanervakoti, one of the participant units in Dementia project. The purpose was to develop action for elderly persons to increase their quality of life and welfare. In practice, this meant organizing weekly events (Wednesday Feast) together with third sector agents. During the process a supplemental program (control group) was created according to the theory of Levine Madori. The intention of the supplemental program was to lower the staff’s threshold to instruct activities. Research objectives were to find out how the development work has succeeded and what kind of effects it has for the elders and the work community.

The most of the data was collected by participant observation. The viewpoints of the elderly people and the observations were noted in research diaries. The staff’s views were received with theme interview for the focus group. The results were evaluated with data based contents analysis because the theory changed during the process as it is supposed to do in action research.
The main result was that Wednesday Feast and the supplemental program which was designed according to Levine Madori’s theory enriched the inhabitants’ lives and increased their welfare. Wednesday Feasts worked as planned but the staff didn’t start to organize the supplemental program. However, it caused other beneficial and positive things. The staff’s threshold to instruct activities lowered and the amount of the organized activities has increased. As the synergy of the development work the inhabitants’ ability to function, vitality and involvement has strengthened and gotten better. It can be stated that development work is beneficial be-cause it helps to get multiple results within staff and the elderly people.