Patient-Centered Care for People With Dementia

For people with dementia, establishing an environment that focuses on the individual's strengths, interests, preferences and particular needs will provide the best patient care. Patients with dementia can live at home, in an assisted-living facility or at a nursing home. Wherever they reside, you must concentrate on the individuality of each person who has dementia.

Dementia

• Dementia is not a specific disease, but rather a group of symptoms that occur because the dementia person's brain no longer works properly. This person's memory, ability to think clearly, communication skills and behavior are affected by dementia. Because each individual with dementia has particular strengths, interests, and conduct, patient-centered care is essential.

Patient-Centered care

• Tom Kitwood and the Bradford Dementia Group in England designed Person-Centered Care in the late 1980s. Patient-Centered Care puts the person first regardless of his level of mental functioning. This type of care takes into account each person's experience of well-being, through the eyes of the person receiving the care. The person living with dementia can experience physical and mental well-being as well as social and even spiritual well-being from this type of care. Many places provide individualized care for their residents with dementia.
  The topic at a symposium in April of 2008 called "Creating Home in the Nursing Home", elaborated on person-centered care and living surroundings. In June 2009, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) adopted the person-centered care philosophy for all people living at a nursing home. People with dementia are less agitated if they have person-centered care, according to a study by Australian researchers from the University of Technology Sydney. This study was published in the Lancet Neurology in March 2009. An atmosphere that works for one patient with dementia might not work for another. Preferences and needs for the same patient might be different each day. Awareness of the whole person challenges people caring for him. Bringing a smile to the faces of patients with dementia brings happiness to them and satisfaction to those who care for them.