ROME TOWNSHIP — Beginning Monday, the staff of Wyngate at RiversEdge Senior Living Community will start a weeklong program learning about Behavior-Based Ergonomics Therapy (BBET) for residents with Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Developed by Dr. Giovind Bharwani, co-director of Ergonomics and Alzheimer’s Care at Wright State University in Dayton, the award-winning program focuses on minimizing stress on affected individuals by adjusting the environment and taking part in different activities through music, video, stimulating and memory prop therapies.

“This came from the Wyngate corporate office and we’re one of the locations that will try this out on our patients with Alzheimer’s and dementia,” Julie Poff, activities manager at Wyngate, said. “Dr. Bharwani is doing the training of our employees all week.”

Bharwani and an analytical team from Wright State University conducted a 2011 study of affected residents at St. Leonard Franciscan Living Community in Centerville before and after implementing BBET.

Based on six months of data before using BBET and six months of data following the use of BBET, the number of resident falls decreased from 40 to 27 for an improvement of 33 percent, the number of charted mood and behavior issues dropped from 410 to 136 for a 67 percent improvement rate, the number of behavioral episodes fell from 96 to 60 for an improvement of 38 percent and the number of PRN medications reduced from 19 to 10, for an improvement rate of 47 percent in residents at the facility for the whole year.

On Wednesday, the Wyngate will host a dinner for families of their residents with Alzheimer’s and dementia at 5 p.m. and on Thursday, will host a dinner for doctors who deal with those with the conditions at 5 p.m.

Bharwani will be at both to explain the benefits of the BBET program and the science behind it.