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Improving the social health of community-dwelling older people living with dementia through a reablement program

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2017

Yun-Hee Jeon*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Lindy Clemson
Affiliation:
Ageing, Health & Work Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Sharon L. Naismith
Affiliation:
Healthy Brain Ageing Program, Faculty of Science, Charles Perkins Centre and Brain & Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Loren Mowszowski
Affiliation:
Healthy Brain Ageing Program, Faculty of Science, Charles Perkins Centre and Brain & Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Niki McDonagh
Affiliation:
Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Margaret Mackenzie
Affiliation:
Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Caitlin Dawes
Affiliation:
Brain & Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Luisa Krein
Affiliation:
Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Sarah L. Szanton
Affiliation:
School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Yun-Hee Jeon, Professor, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, The University of Sydney, 88 Mallett Street, Building M02, Camperdown, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Phone: +61-2-93510674; Fax: +61-2-9351 0679. Email: [email protected].

Abstract

Psychological, neurological, and social impairments caused by dementia may limit the person's everyday living and experiences, but their capacity to enjoy a meaningful life is still retained. Increasingly, evidence has been shown the importance of reablement approaches to care in maximizing the older person's independence, health, and well-being through increased engagement in their daily, physical, social, and community activities. However, there is a major knowledge gap in providing reablement for people living with dementia. We describe one case of a client with moderate dementia and her daughter carer who participated as a dyad in a person centered, interdisciplinary, and reablement program called I-HARP (Interdisciplinary home-based reablement program). I-HARP is designed to improve functional capacity of those community dwelling, older people living with dementia, and other health conditions. In this paper, we discussed key contributions that such a reablement approach to care can make to optimizing the social health of people living with dementia.

Type
Case Report
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2017 

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