Implementing Person-Centered Care in Residential Dementia Care

TLDR

Person‑centered care (PCC) for dementia patients is a system that maintains personhood despite cognitive decline and requires a whole‑of‑system approach with formal and informal learning. The article aims to provide a detailed overview of the PCC intervention arm and describe the training and procedures used to facilitate its implementation. Implementation involved training that emphasized the social world’s impact, promoted interpersonal engagement skills, and facilitated on‑site learning through life‑story‑based care planning and observation of social interactions. The cluster randomized trial showed that PCC reduced agitation in residential dementia care, with success linked to a two‑pronged approach that included managerial support. Keywords include agitation, dementia, long‑term care, person‑centered care, staff training; funding was provided by the Australian Health Minister's Advisory Council (Grant #513103).

Abstract

Abstract Person-centered care (PCC) for people with dementia is a system of care that is based on the belief that personhood can be maintained despite cognitive impairment. A recently conducted cluster randomized trial (CitationChenoweth et al., 2009) demonstrated that PCC was effective in reducing agitation in people with dementia who were in residential care. This article provides a detailed overview of the PCC intervention arm of the study and describes the training and procedures used to facilitate implementation of PCC. Training emphasized the impact of the social world on the person with dementia and promoted the skills of interpersonal engagement, especially in relation to feeling expression. Facilitated on-site learning involved care planning that included obtaining a life story of the person with dementia and observing social interactions. The success of the PCC intervention was related to this two-pronged approach, which included support from managers. Implementation of PCC requires a whole-of-system approach, which includes formal and informal learning. Keywords: agitationdementialong-term careperson-centered carestaff training Acknowledgments Funding was provided by the Australian Health Minister's Advisory Council (Grant #513103).