Cognitive Stimulation Therapy for Dementia

Cognitive Stimulation Therapy is an evidence based treatment for people with mild to moderate dementia. The idea was devised by Dr Aimee Spector and a team of researchers at University College London. The therapy involves 14 or more sessions of themed, group activities to help people to strengthen their cognitive capacity. The aims of the sessions are to actively stimulate and engage people, who are living with dementia. The sessions can be carried out in a range of settings including residential homes, hospitals and day centre’s. The session facilitator can be anyone working with people with dementia such as care workers, occupational therapists or nurses.

According to guidelines by the researchers, each session should follow a general theme and a choice of activities given, in order to cater to the interests of the group. Giving the group a name, using the same warm up activity and having a theme song can help to create consistency between sessions. Sessions can include: physical games, word association, using money, team quizzes and much more. The researchers give 19 ‘Key Principles’ which must be incorporated into sessions, some of which include: choice, fun, mental stimulation, and providing triggers to aid recall.

Research into the benefits of the therapy has found that patients have improved cognition as well as improved communication, mood and social inclusion; through being part of a close group. These factors combined resulted in an improved quality of life for people living with dementia. CST was also found to be a fairly cost effective intervention as there are little resources needed to carry sessions out.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence recommended the use of group cognitive stimulation for people with mild to moderate dementia, irrespective of drug treatments received. Alzheimer’s Research UK also advocates the use of Cognitive Stimulation Therapy stating that: “The benefits of cognitive stimulation for people with dementia could include improvement in memory, thinking skills and quality of life.” However, despite evidence in its favour, the regular use of cognitive stimulation therapy is rarely seen in UK care settings.

Have you or a family member ever been part of CST sessions? Please share your views and experiences below.