SECOND RESEARCH STUDY PUBLISHED IN FINLAND FINDS TTAP METHOD EFFECTIVE.

SEINÄJOKI UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES

THESIS ABSTRACT

Faculty: Social- and Health Care Department
Degree programme: Social Services
Authors: Peltokangas, Eija and Rantala, Marjaana
Title of the thesis: Enriching the daily life in a service center for those diagnosed with dementia.
Tutor: Perttula, Katariina
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 the Goverment sponcered Demke-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- community volunteers. During the process a supplemental program was created according to the theory of Levine Madori (2007). The intention of the supplemental TTAP Method program was to lower the staff’s threshold to instruct activities, and possibly stimulate the formation of new activities. Research objectives were established to exhamine out how the development of TTAP Method programming succeeded and what kind of effects it has for the staff, elders with dementia and the work community.

The data collection was observational and qualitative. The viewpoints of the volunteers, the elderly people with dementia and observations from the staff were noted dialy 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 develop-ment work the inhabitants’ ability to function, vitality and involvement has streng-thened 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.

Keywords: TTAP Method, development, dementia, institutional attendance, group activity, welfare