The results emphasise the importance of "loss of speech" and the importance of the caring family as well as the availability of technical aids in ALS. Coping in ALS seems to be based mainly on "rumination" and *"hold in the religion", but the increasing importance of "search for information" indicates that the sustained offer of information is essential.

An overview will be presented of music therapy, art therapy, movement therapy and reminiscence therapy, memory training, reality orientation, validation therapy, self-maintenance therapy, behaviour therapy, milieu therapy and staff training. The overview will examine the aims of each, the principles on which procedures are based and the proof of their effectiveness. The principal aim of non-drug therapies is to influence symptomatic dementia beneficially and to improve the abilities remaining to the patient. The potential benefits are usually deduced from studies made without control groups. At the present time, proof of the effectiveness of these therapies is still lacking as controlled, randomized studies have yet to be conducted, and so a fundamental evaluation of the therapeutic benefits of non-drug therapies in the treatment of dementia cannot yet be made.

Within the first four weeks after discharge, the patients in the intervention group had fewer new illnesses. In the observation period the use of outpatient care services was more frequent in the intervention group than in the control group. Conclusion: Even though there are few differences of moderate intensity between the two groups the intensified transition programme does not affect either the functional status of the stroke patients or the health of the carers.

The physical health of former caregivers improves in the long term once they cease to provide home care. The fact that former caregivers go to the doctor much more frequently is to be interpreted as an indication that they take the time to attend to their own physical and medical needs.

No abstract