Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST)

CST is a new approach to provide help for people who suffer from early stage memory loss.

By providing a friendly atmosphere and familiar surroundings, by using prompts and memories from the past and promoting a firm sense of the present this new type of therapy has been shown to have real benefit for people who suffer from dementia / memory loss.problems.

CST is not a cure but it has been shown to provide a lasting effectiveness for the management of dementia associated symptoms, and is so far the only therapeutic treatment recommended by (NICE) the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

Here is an extract from the NICE recommended guidelines:

“Cognitive stimulation is the only non-pharmacological intervention to be recommended for cognitive symptoms and maintenance of function. As NICE only recommend drug treatments for people in the moderate stages of Alzheimer’s disease, Cognitive Stimulation is the treatment of choice for people in earlier stages of dementia. This points to the importance of CST being offered routinely in services.

People with mild / moderate dementia, of all types, should be given the opportunity to participate in a structured group cognitive stimulation programme. This should be commissioned and provided by a range of health and social care workers with training and supervision and should be delivered irrespective of any anti-dementia drug received by the person with dementia”.