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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| What factors influence mental health professionals when deciding whether or not share a diagnosis of dementia with the person? | | Author(s) | J Keightley, A Mitchell |
| Journal title | Aging & Mental Health, vol 8, no 1, January 2004 |
| Pages | pp 13-20 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Diagnosis ; Patients ; Communication. |
| Annotation | Currently, people with dementia tend not to be told their diagnosis, despite evidence that sharing diagnostic information can improve psychological well-being and adjustment. Although the literature raises a number of possibilities, the reluctance of professionals to share diagnostic information with people with dementia is unclear. A qualitative methodology was used and data analysed using grounded theory in relation to 2 clinical psychologists and 5 community psychiatric nurses. The main influence on their disclosure practice was uncertainty about whether people with dementia would want to know the diagnosis, fuelled by a fear that to tell them if they did not want to know would cause harm. A strong sense of both hopelessness and helplessness when confronted with dementia was also expressed, which was then projected onto the person with dementia, and in turn led to professionals' overly protective stance. Services need to develop ways in which the views of people with dementia can be heard and start to influence service provision and policy. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-040311506 A |
| Classmark | EA: LK7: LF: U |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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