[UK] From living well to dying well with dementia: The significance of an expanded understanding of loss for end-of-life care

[UK] From living well to dying well with dementia: The significance of an expanded understanding of loss for end-of-life care
Palliative Care and Social Practice; by Joseph M Sawyer, Paul Higgs; 9/25
As rates of dementia increase, the need for care is clear. Understanding what this looks like and how people might orientate the narratives and practices of care against a universally relatable version of success is less clear cut yet seems crucial if we are to progress towards an ideal of care that allows for a 'good' or 'dignified' death with palliative care. With this as a central focus, the paper examines the orientating principles that govern the current approach to dementia care. We map the evolution in academic theory from deficit-based models of care that identify impairments as a means to building resources to counter them, towards capacity-oriented approaches that focus on accommodating the new experiences that dementia brings. Where conventionally dementia has been viewed through the reductionist lens of being either a biological or social challenge to which there should be a matching solution, it is perhaps more useful to look at it from the inside out, to learn the lessons that dementia and its associated vulnerabilities may hold for humanity.