ABSTRACT
Engaging adults with Alzheimer’s disease in activities can prevent disease related agitation. Finding meaningful and enjoyable activities proves to be a difficult task due to severe damage to explicit memory and executive functioning. Fortunately, many spiritual and religious activities rely on more resilient cognitive features such as procedural memory and limbic system aspects of attachment and motivation. Such spiritual activities, if properly selected, can be used to engage adults with dementia. This approach, called Procedural and Emotional Religious Activity Therapy, can be used by various religious traditions and extended to multiple therapeutic venues. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <docdelivery@haworthpress.com> Website: <https://www.HaworthPress.com>; © 2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]
[Haworth co-indexing entry note]: “Spiritual Activities for Adults with Alzheimer’s Disease: The Cognitive Components of Dementia and Religion.” Vance, David E. Co-published simultaneously in Journal of Religion, Spirituality & Aging (The Haworth Pastoral Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc.) Vol. 17, No. 1/2, 2004, pp. 109-130; and: Spiritual Assessment and Intervention with Older Adults: Current Directions and Applications (ed: Mark Brennan, and Deborah Heiser) The Haworth Pastoral Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc., 2004, pp. 109-130. Single or multiple copies of this article are available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service [1-800-HAWORTH, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (EST). E-mail address: docdelivery@haworthpress.com].
