REHACOP-rehabilitation program for people in early phases of cognitive decline

The aim of this initiative is to provide people in early phases of cognitive decline with an intervention which is friendly, easy and with non-secondary effects, to cope with this deterioration. Secondly, the intervention enhances general health and functionality and prevents dependency. Thirdly, it increases the social relationship in this generation promoting wellbeing.
For that purpose, 5 nursing homes in the area of Biscay were contacted and participated together with the University of Deusto in identifying and recruiting the target population. An expert in the field performed a pre-intervention general assessment to define the characteristics of participants in terms of their cognitive and psychological status. When a person accepted to participate (voluntarily), he/she was assigned to either an experimental group or a normal control group. The experimental group was involved in group cognitive retraining with the Rehacop program (designed for this purpose) 3 times a week during 3 months. All the assessments were again implemented at the end of the intervention. The control group was enrolled in occupational tasks (including sports, gardening, and manual dexterity) with the same frequency and duration. After both groups completed the intervention cycle, a statistically significant improvement in the experimental group compared to normal controls in most cognitive domains explored was observed. This improvement was related to functional outcome and level of dependency.