Dementia: Research supports person centered care

An intensive comparative study of two nursing home units using contrasting approaches to dementia care for elders with severely disturbed behaviors has shown that "humanizing" approaches to dementia care may not only extend quality of life for patients, but also their length of life.

Central Michigan University professor of anthropology Athena McLean in her recently published book, "The Person in Dementia: A Study of Nursing Home Care in the U.S.," demonstrates the very different outcomes of two approaches to dementia care: a rigid task-oriented maintenance approach which placed emphasis on disease progression and a flexible person-centered approach which focussed on the older persons communication and individual needs.

There were dramatic differences in patient quality of life at the two nursing units.

Patients at the person-centered unit, where staff looked beyond physical and reasoning abilities to the person's will and relationship with others, were happier, had improved quality of life and lived longer.

Those at the unit which focussed on disability and pathology tended to have personal needs ignored, were heavily medicated and often failed to thrive.

"These findings address issues that medicine can't answer," said McLean. "They are valuable not only for improving the general quality of life for these elders, but also for the long-term outcome based on how they are treated and cared for. These elders require attention, time and a lot of caring interaction."

The study also showed that relations among professional and administrative staff within a service can significantly affect the quality of the dementia care elders receive.

According to McLean; "Good caregivers are leaving the profession because they are underpaid and unappreciated. It needs to be understood by policy makers, family members and clinicians alike that money needs to be put into retaining quality caregiving staff, instead of only fancy facilities, which is currently the trend."

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