Bernie McCarthy - Hearing the Person with Dementia: Person-Centred Approaches to Communication for Families and Caregivers

Acknowledgements

I express my gratitude to Virginia Moore and Kim Wylie for opening up the person-centred approach to seeing people who live with dementia. They have inspired me to explore and understand more deeply the meaning of being person-centred. I have also been supported by Dawn Brooker who embodies this way of being in her work and relationships and whose guidance has helped me to appreciate the more subtle aspects of helping people in organisations to be more person-centred. My life with Anne and Scarlett is the well I drink from and sit at in quiet wonderment thank you. This book is dedicated to these people, to those who live with dementia and to those who care daily for the ones they love.

Appendix

Signs of well-being

Communicates wishes/needs successfully

Engaged with the people, things and events around them

Sensitive to the emotional needs of others

Positive mood shown in smiling, laughing

Engages in creative activity such as painting, singing, dancing

Shows enjoyment in interactions and events

Shows awareness of the well-being of others by being helpful

Makes social contact (eye contact, begins conversation, touches others appropriately)

Can be affectionate

Shows self-respect in attention to dress and appearance

Bodily relaxation (facial expression and body posture)

Humour, playfulness

Cooperative with requests

Enjoys life

Confident

Cheerful

Willingly participates in care

Trusts others

Comfortable with physical closeness

Signs of ill-being

Negative mood (shows upset in facial expression, posture and sounds such as whimpering, calling out, screaming or crying)

Walks into other peoples private space or into unsafe areas

Grieving, sad

Angry, aggressive

Agitated or restless

Shows anxiety or fear

Boredom

Bodily tension

Easily dominated by others

Rejected or ignored by others

Listlessness, apathy

Withdrawal

Physical discomfort or pain

Unable to enjoy things

Lonely

Makes noise, calls out or vocalises

Verbally refuses care

Suspicious of others

Physically threatens others

Conclusion

I hope the person-centred approach to caring helps you to communicate, relate well and have insight into the world of the people you care for. The world of dementia can be confusing and fearful at times, both for the person living with it and for those around them. As you enter the world of another person, your care and communication can help make their experience enjoyable, peaceful and dignified, and will enhance and sustain their personhood as you journey along using the person-centred approach through dementia with them.

Quote on reproduced by permission of Aitken Alexander Associates and
Edward de Bono. Copyright Edward de Bono.

Epigraph on reproduced by permission of Habib Chaudhury.

First published in 2011

by Jessica Kingsley Publishers

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and

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Copyright Bernie McCarthy 2011

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

McCarthy, Bernie.

Hearing the person with dementia : person-centred approaches to communication for families and caregivers / Bernie McCarthy.

p. ; cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-84905-186-6 (alk. paper)

1. Dementia--Nursing. 2. Dementia--Patients--Care--Psychological aspects. 3. Dementia--Patients--Family relationships. 4. Medical personnel and patient. I. Title.

[DNLM: 1. Dementia--nursing. 2. Dementia--psychology. 3. Caregivers--psychology. 4. Communication. 5. Nurse-Patient Relations. 6. Patient-Centered Care--methods. WM 220]

RC521.M389 2011

616.83--dc22

2010034866

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84905 186 6

ISBN pdf eBook 978 0 85700 499 4

Hearing the
Person with
Dementia

Person-Centred Approaches
to Communication for
Families and Caregivers

Bernie McCarthy

Jessica Kingsley Publishers
London and Philadelphia

Hearing the Person with Dementia

Introduction

Communication is the food of relationships. Good communication is nourishing, delightful and memorable. It creates intimacy, enriches us and we become better people. Poor communication is like bad food poisonous and harmful.

Bernie McCarthy

Hearing the Person with Dementia is written from my experience of working to support carers of people living with dementia at home and in residential care. It is written for these carers.

Over the years that I have worked in aged care I have witnessed the powerful effect of good communication in reaching a person previously thought to be unreachable because of cognitive impairment. And, sadly I have witnessed the effects of poor communication and seen the person wither before my eyes as they are misread and frustrated by care staff and/or family. I hope you will find many ideas and helpful ways of approaching interactions with the person you care for in the pages of this book. May they be happier, more contented and peacefully connected to and with us, and to their own lives, past and present.

of related interest

Person-Centred Dementia Care

Making Services Better

Dawn Brooker

ISBN 978 1 84310 337 0

Enriched Care Planning for People with Dementia

A Good Practice Guide to Delivering Person-Centred Care

Hazel May, Paul Edwards and Dawn Brooker

ISBN 978 1 84310 405 6

Connecting through Music with People with Dementia

A Guide for Caregivers

Robin Rio

ISBN 978 1 84310 905 1

Telling Tales About Dementia

Experiences of Caring

Edited by Lucy Whitman

ISBN 978 1 84310 941 9

References

Axel, G. (1987) Babettes Feast (film).

Bradford Dementia Group (2005) Dementia Care Mapping: Principles and Practice . University of Bradford: Bradford Dementia Group.

Brooker, D. (2004) What is person-centred care in dementia? Reviews in Clinical Gerontology 13 , 18.

Brooker, D. (2007) Person-centred Dementia Care: Making Services Better . London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Chaudhury, H. (2008) Remembering Home: Rediscovering the Self in Dementia . Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Killick, J. (1997) You Are Words: Dementia Poems. London: Hawker.

Killick, J. and Cordonnier, C. (2000) Openings: Dementia Poems and Photographs. London: Hawker.

Kitwood, T. (1997) Dementia Reconsidered: The Person Comes First . Buckingham: Open University Press.

Kitwood, T. and Bredin, K. (1992) Towards a theory of dementia care: personhood and wellbeing. Ageing and Society 12 , 269287.