Interventions focusing on learning pre-transfer wheelchair manipulation in a patient with severe Alzheimer’s disease: a case report

ABSTRACT

Background

Independence of transfer is important for the daily activities of wheelchair users. A critical step in performing this transfer includes a pre-transfer wheelchair manipulation, and patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) experience difficulties in learning these tasks. In this report, we present the results of a treatment focused on learning pre-transfer wheelchair manipulation and its learning course in a patient with severe AD.

Case description

The patient was a 92-year-old woman with severe AD during hospitalization in a long-term care ward. Since her cognitive function was highly compromised, she required assistance for pre-transfer wheelchair manipulation. Physiotherapists implemented a treatment plan that incorporated post-behavioral praise into a practice combining errorless learning and spaced retrieval training for pre-transfer wheelchair manipulation.

Outcomes

The patient was able to accurately perform pre-transfer wheelchair manipulation in the seventh treatment session and achieved transfer independence after 12 physiotherapy sessions.

Conclusion

This case report suggests that practicing combined errorless learning, spaced retrieval training, and post-behavioral praise was helpful as a treatment modality for an individual with severe AD for wheelchair manipulation learning before transfer.

KEYWORDS:

• Dementia
• activities of daily living
• transfer
• physical therapy
• practice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.