Overview of Research

A growing number of published and proposed outcome studies with interventions based on the cognitive disabilities model and related assessments demonstrate that use of scores from these assessments contribute to therapists’ ability to provide effective interventions.

Several studies for adults and the elderly with mental illness have demonstrated the usefulness of the CDM model and the ACLS-90 to guide effective interventions (Chapleau, Seroczynski, Meyers, Lamb & Buchino, 2012; Donda, Stratta, & Sconci, 2001; Katz & Perelman, 1993; Helfrich, Chan, & Sabol, 2011; Raweh & Katz, 1999).

Several published outcome studies with hospitalized elderly adults have also demonstrated the feasibility of using the CDM and related assessments to guide effective interventions. These studies include two studies that used the ACLS-90 (Holm, Michel, Stern, Hung, Klein, Flaherty, Michel, & Maletta, 1999; Ngoh, Lewis & Connolly, 2005) and one study (Gitlin, Marx, Alonzi, Kvedar, Moody, Trahan, & Van Haitsma, 2016) that used the ACLS-5 and LACLS-5 and the ADM-2 (Kvedar & Alonzi, 2014) as part of the Tailored Activity Program (TAP; Gitlin, Winter, Vause-Earland, Herge, Chernett, Piersol, & Burke, 2009) which is an occupational therapy intervention based on the CDM (Kvedar & Alonzi, 2014).

An intervention study with community-dwelling older adults and caregivers that used the ACLS-90 and the ADM, also as part of a TAP intervention, (Gitlin, Winter, Vause-Earland, Herge, Chernett, Piersol, & Burke, 2009) reported significantly decreased behavior problems and increased activity participation for persons with dementia and improved caregiver quality of life. Another study with community-dwelling older adults by Wesson, Clemson, Brodaty, Lord, Taylor, Gitlin & Close (2013) demonstrated the feasibility of using the CDM and the LACLS-5 to guide interventions in a falls prevention program with the elderly living in the community.

This section is under development.