Strong evidence for person-centred care
A Sydney study highlighting the benefits of person-centred care for people with dementia has been published in a well-respected international journal.
An Australian research project has presented compelling evidence for a person-centred approach to the care of people with dementia.
Appearing in the April issue of the Lancet Neurology, the Caring for Aged Dementia Care Resident Study (CADRES) found that person-centred approaches can be taught quickly and should be introduced as standard practice in nursing homes.
The study focused on 289 residents with dementia from 15 Sydney residential aged care facilities, who were randomly assigned to person-centred care, dementia-care mapping, or usual care.
Carers at the participating homes received training and support in the relevant intervention or continued providing ‘usual care’.
Findings showed that both interventions reduced agitation compared with ‘usual care’ at the end of a four-month treatment period.
These benefits were maintained with a further decrease recorded at four-month follow-up.
However study leader Professor Lynn Chenoweth from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) said the person-centred care intervention proved to be more effective and cheaper to implement.
“That philosophy says that if a person is treated in an inhuman way they will deteriorate into a spiral of distress or illbeing that will manifest itself in distressed behaviours such as screaming, groaning, biting, kicking and withdrawal,” said Professor Chenoweth.
“But when staff engage and communicate with a resident as a human being who has rights, then the person is able to maintain their integrity as a human being rather than being treated as ‘dementia person’.
“It’s a very different way of approaching care – it’s not just about providing individualised care but about regarding each person with respect.”
Professor Chenoweth said homes could implement a person-centred approach without too much difficult, using a train the trainer model, similar to the one employed in the study.
“It’s a very effective method because when you use it you have ongoing training and support onsite,” she said.
“It means you don’t just have experts from outside coming in and telling the staff what to do.
“Instead with a train the trainer approach, the staff are trained in the process and then they go back to their own sites and have train their colleagues.”
The study was welcomed enthusiastically by Professor Clive Ballard and Professor Dag Aarsland from King’s College London.
“CADRES is an extremely important trial that might greatly affect clinical practice,” they said.
