Dementia and Suffering in Nursing Homes

SUMMARY

This paper uses case studies of challenging behaviour associated with dementia to demonstrate, firstly, that disturbed behaviour is often a manifestation of suffering caused by multiple phenomena such as medical problems or the care environment. Addressing these causes instead of simplistically ‘treating the behaviour’ usually reduces the behaviour. Secondly, staff distress with a particular difficult resident is often caused by more general fundamental problems such as a lack of support or knowledge. Addressing these problems reduces staff distress. Finally, results from a Swedish intervention study are presented. They show that suffering for both staff and residents can be reduced, and quality of life improved, by providing increased autonomy for hands-on staff, systematic emotional support, and collaboratively developing care plans based on each resident's emotional and physical needs, rather than the problems they present.

KEYWORDS:

• Challenging behaviour in dementia
• case studies
• residential care
• nursing staff distress
• staff supervision and support
• quality of life