DEVELOPMENT OF A PERSON-CENTRED COGNITIVE TOOL: HOW TO PROVIDE STRENGTH-BASED MEMORY CARE

摘要

As the aging population grows, there is an increasing focus on interventions that support person-centred and wellness-based approaches to care for older adults. This is particularly evident for those in supported living (SL) centres and the community, where the focus is on maximizing strengths, and reducing the need for admission to long-term or acute settings for more advanced care. Despite this, current cognitive assessment tools focus primarily on diagnosis or functional deficits in order to determine care needs, while there are limited strength-based and person-centered cognitive tools available.Our research challenges this practice gap through understanding the ‘gold standard’ of person-centered care, in order to develop a tool that supports a wellness-focused approach to meet residents’ everyday lifestyle goals and health support needs. This participatory action research study is a partnership between the Geriatric Research Unit at the University of Calgary and United Active Living, a SL facility in Calgary. In this study, researchers work alongside Memory Care staff and cognitive residents in developing an assessment approach that incorporates resident goals, memory care programming considerations, and cognitive support to maximize resident well-being.This presentation will argue for critical engagement with a person-centred care philosophy that moves from the rhetoric of the approach to the application of the philosophy in relation to assessment. We will overview the process involved in developing the tool and present the draft assessment tool for discussion.