Interventions supporting self and identity in people with dementia: A systematic review

Abstract

Objectives: Recently, researchers have started to focus on ways to support self and identity in people with dementia. The purpose of this review is to discuss the main features of existing interventions aiming to support self and identity in people with dementia, to draw conclusions regarding the effectiveness of these interventions and to highlight the implications for future research.

Method: Systematic review of intervention studies aiming to support self and identity in people with dementia.

Results: Ten studies met the inclusion criteria. All reported some benefits to participants. There were significant methodological limitations and study quality was generally low. The interventions varied in terms of participant characteristics, content and outcome measures, making it difficult to draw overall conclusions about effectiveness.

Conclusions: Interventions aiming to support self and identity in people with dementia are currently in the early stages of development. Firm recommendations cannot be made at this time. Further well-designed studies are required to provide more robust evidence.

Keywords:

• Alzheimer's disease
• vascular dementia
• personhood
• selfhood

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Mr. Christopher Whitaker for his statistical advice on an earlier version of this paper.