Caregiving with the Person-Centered Approach

Caregiving from a person-centered perspective is widely seen as one respectful and honoring approach to care. The fundamental principle of this care approach is in its name – the care-receiver’s emotions and quality of life are of the utmost importance, informing decisions the caregiver makes about what’s best for them. It also means spending time on the caregiver’s and care-receiver’s relationship and treating them like a true person.

Fazio, Pace, Flinner, & Kallmyer (2018) outlined what person-centered care looks like specifically for people living with dementia. They note that this type of care is important especially because it promotes the sense of selfhood for individuals with dementia. It retains their personhood and respects them as people. The approach also focuses on relationships and uses those ties to make care better for both individuals, as well as provides meaning for the caregiver and care-receiver.

Wu, Qian, Deng, & Yu (2020) explored what these caregiver and care-receiver interactions look like when based in a person-centered approach. From their reviews, they found that special attention needs to be given to the process of the dementia care, how it’s structured organizationally, and the outcome of the care when applying this approach long-term and in care homes. The researchers also explained the caregivers’ purposes in providing this kind of care. These included pursuing understanding of and knowing the care-receiver, improving their quality of life and well-being, promoting their sense of security and safety, bringing calm and peace in their surroundings, build up their sense of self, and encourage participation in activities. Additionally, they discovered that when care-receivers have a higher well-being, caregivers express more positive attitudes.

Access these two articles to read more in-depth: The fundamentals of person-centered care for individuals with dementia and Understanding interactions between caregivers and care recipients in person-centered dementia care: A rapid review.