DEMENTIA CARE Putting People First


Julie Booth, Head of Quality at Exemplar Health Care, talks about what person-centred care looks like for those living with dementia, and how to foster a person-centred culture for dementia care.


For people living with dementia, person-centred care should be at the heart of all care planning and delivery.


Person-centred dementia care focuses on knowing the unique person through meaningful relationships, that foster choice, independence, purpose and belonging.


ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL


As Professor Tom Kitwood famously states: “When you’ve met one person with dementia, you’ve met one person with dementia.”


This statement broadly supports the principles and ethos of person-centred dementia care – that the individual living with dementia is more than their symptoms or diagnosis.


People living with dementia should never be defined by their diagnosis. All too oſten we hear phrases such as: “Mrs Smith has dementia so therefore can’t do this or understand that” or “well, Mr Jones is acting that way because he has dementia.”


For people living with dementia, person-centred care should be at the heart and centre of all care planning and delivery, especially when someone moves into a care home setting.


“Person-centred care values choice,


dignity, respect and purposeful living, honouring personal preferences and goals, and promoting meaningful relationships and communication across all care partners.”


Although the principles associated with any effective model of person-centred dementia care should include knowledge and understanding of dementia and the impact the disease process can have on brain functioning, it should also include knowledge and understanding of each individual’s personality, life history, health and wellbeing.


PERSON-CENTRED CARE FOR PEOPLE


LIVING WITH DEMENTIA Person-centred care is an approach that centres care around the individual, promoting the ethos that every person living with dementia is unique.


Person-centred care values choice, dignity, respect and purposeful living, honouring personal preferences and goals, and promoting meaningful relationships and communication across all care partners.


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It’s important to know and understand each individual’s beliefs, values, interests, abilities, both past and present, which can then inform the subsequent interactions and experiences each person has when living in a care setting.


A quality person-centred care model should also include an understanding of, and reference to, social psychology. This is important in understanding the impact that a new environment and day-to-day interactions surrounding the person living with dementia can have on their overall wellbeing.


If the right approach is taken, by trained care staff, then the care home environment can be both supportive and enhancing for those living with dementia.


However, if a person-centred approach isn’t taken, care home environments can become institutionalised and damaging, in particular when routine and task driven practice takes precedence over the promotion and delivery of personalised care.


MAKING A HOUSE A HOME


Oſten, when an individual moves into a care home setting, the new home does not immediately feel like a home, the walls and décor don’t seem familiar.


It’s important that at least one small space feels more familiar to that person. The care home team should encourage people with dementia and their loved ones to bring items of furniture, mementos and photos that were present in their previous home setting, that can be used to make bedrooms feel more like a place to call home.


The care home should provide an environment that facilitates orientation and independence as opposed to confusion and reliance on others.


Some of the ways that care homes can do this are:


● Signage that appropriately indicates where things are (including important rooms such as toilets, bathrooms, bedroom and dining room).


● Communal areas decorated in such a manner as to further aid orientation and reduce confusion and visual disturbance - for example, avoiding patterned carpets that may trigger the illusion of insects or mice running around which can be unsafe.


People with dementia should be encouraged to participate in the everyday tasks they would normally be doing in their own home such as cooking, washing up, cleaning, folding laundry and gardening.


This will help to foster a sense of ‘home’ and belonging and give more meaning to each day and to where they are and why they are there.


www.tomorrowscare.co.uk


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