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JEROME F. SINGLETON
the person with Alzheimer's disease? The continuity theory of aging (Atchley, 1971) may be an appropriate framework for developing activities for individuals with Alzheimer's disease. Recent findings in the leisure and aging literature indicate that activity patterns may be stable across the life span (Forbes et al., 1993; Harvey & Singleton, 1989). Based on these findings, the continuity theory of aging, and time-budget data, the following methodology was developed to assess the leisure abilities of the person with Alzheimer's disease.
Process of Understanding Leisure Ability Individuals who have Alzheimer's disease are affected differently; therefore, the activity selected for the individual needs to be based on his or her level of ability. As indicated earlier, activity has often been studied as a unidimensional concept by attempting to identify the number of activities in which a person has participated during the last year. This perspective has provided a very narrow view of what an activity is. An activity will vary depending on who a person participates with, location of the activity, amount of time the person spends on the activity, and why the person participates in the activity (role-obligated or choice). These temporal aspects will vary with the activity as the person travels through the life span (Forbes et al., 1993). To understand what the activity represents to the person, an interview process was established based upon the stages of the life cycle to elicit information on the types of activities participated in and what the activity meant to the person. Ostiguy MacNeil, Ritcey, and Singleton (1990) developed a protocol that would assist the therapist in gathering information on the abilities of the person who has Alzheimer’s disease. This process enables the therapist to identify the context of the activity in which the person participated. The following process uses existing resources in seeking information on the leisure abilities of a person (Ostiguy et al., 1990). 1. Review patient's chart, consulting particularly the social history and what the patient was doing prior to admittance in the hospital. The researchers reviewed the following: a. Family patterns—possible family leisure activities. b. Social patterns—activities with spouse, friends, others. c. Work patterns—the kinds of jobs held—shift work, labor, office job? d. Groups and organizations—church, legion, card clubs. e. Past interests—person’s self-report and family input, records.