| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
| A person-centred approach to counselling, psychotherapy and rehabilitation of people diagnosed with dementia in the early stages | | Author(s) | Christine Bryden |
| Journal title | Dementia: the international journal of social research and practice, vol 1, no 2, June 2002 |
| Pages | pp 141-156 |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Early ; Personality ; Advisory services [elderly] ; Psychiatric treatment ; Rehabilitation. |
| Annotation | This article draws on concepts developed by Tom Kitwood for describing the factors - neuropathology, health, personality, biography, social psychology - that affect the manifestation of dementia. More emphasis is placed on personality and biography for the person in the early stages, when the social context of the home and the family system is critical. These provide a supportive or negative environment in which the person expresses an experience of cognitive decline. The behaviours seen in dementia are regarded as adaptive responses to the experience of cognitive decline, rather than directly the result of brain pathology. Given this view of the syndrome of dementia being a reactive response to cognitive decline, this article discusses the types of intervention that might be offered. These are grief counselling, non-directive counselling, long-term supportive psychodynamic psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioural therapy and rehabilitation. The human brain has developed over a lifetime of experience, to exhibit its own coping mechanisms in the face of internal devastation. It is this aspect of dementia that is used here as the basis for suggesting effective treatment strategies. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-020816201 A |
| Classmark | EA: 4J: DK: IT: LP: LM |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|