The Closing Group: Therapeutic recreation for nursing home residents with dementia and accompanying agitation and/or anxiety.

Long-term care residents who have a dementia diagnosis could account for as much 50% of a nursing home's population. Often residents with dementia experience a distressing behavioral symptom that affects the resident experiencing the symptom(s), other nursing home residents, visitors, and staff. The Closing Group intervention was developed as a nonpharmacological alternative that aims to reduce agitation and anxiety, increase socialization, decrease restraint use, and decrease antipsychotic drug use for selected residents with a dementia diagnosis. The program was based on an understanding of the contributing factors to agitation and anxiety, the nursing home environment as it relates to behavior, and the offering of resident-driven recreational activities. The purpose of this 2-year study was, with use of multiple measures, to examine the extent to which the Closing Group intervention has met its goals. A sample of 16 long-term care residents was offered attendance at the group. Findings in the area of reducing agitation and anxiety were encouraging to the extent that further study with larger samples is needed.