Living Well with Dementia - Practitioner Approaches

ABSTRACT Recent developments in care for people with mental health conditions of working age have been underpinned by the recovery approach. This paper critically reviews the idea of recovery concerning people with dementia and examines its applicability to living well with dementia. The paper critically reviews the literature relating to the use of the recovery approach for people with dementia, particularly in nursing care. A search was conducted of CINAHL, Cochrane, Science Direct, OVID and Wiley Online databases through the Auckland University of Technology library. The search was confined to the last 10 years of research. Using keywords ‘recovery’, ‘nursing’, ‘dementia’, ‘older adult’, ‘hope’, ‘identity’, ‘connectedness’, ‘empowerment’, ‘CHIME’ and ‘mental health’. The recovery approach shares many ideas with person-centred approaches to dementia care and themes were evaluated using key themes from CHIME, connectedness, hope, identity, meaning and empowerment. The paper concludes by suggesting that care for people with dementia that draws on ideas taken from the recovery approach would improve well-being for people with dementia and the people who care for them and that the CHIME themes are useful for considering care for people with dementia.