Research: How Does Completing Life Story Work Affect People with Dementia?
By Reports & Resources, , ,

Personhood is at the core of person-centred care for people with dementia (PWD) (Kitwood, 1997). Life story work (LSW) is one of the most commonly utilised tools to focus those who support PWD on their personhood.

Despite a general consensus that life story work has the potential to elicit several positive  outcomes  for  people  with  dementia, research  in  the  area  remains  limited  (McKeown  et  al, 2006). In particular, there is a gap in research that examines specifically how LSW affects PWD, this is the focus of this piece of research.

Using a case study approach and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) it was highlighted that LSW can affect mood, motivation and focus, realising ability over disability and eliciting feelings of pride. Most significantly it may assist PWD in realising their own personhood. This has important implications for service delivery and the utilisation of LSW.

‘I’ve been thinking’: How Does Completing Life Story Work Affect People with Dementia? by Iain Houston (pictured) Alzheimer Scotland, is available here:
http://lx.iriss.org.uk/sites/default/files/iain_houston_final_report.pdf