Independence

Background: Most people living with dementia want to remain living in their own homes and are supported to do so by family carers. No interventions have consistently demonstrated improvements to people with dementia’s life quality, functioning, or other indices of living as well as possible with dementia. We have co-produced, with health and social care professionals and family carers of people with dementia, a new intervention (NIDUS-family).

Background: The majority of people with dementia prefer to live independently and safely in their own home cared for by their family members. Much effort has been invested in the development of technology, such as sensor-based networks. Many challenges remain, in particular gaining more knowledge about their experiences and perceived benefits.

Designed exclusively for those providing care within the care home, this two part title introduces carers to the values that underpin person-centred care. It assists them to develop their understanding of how principles of care should be reflected in their day-to-day practices by exploring the values of individuality, rights, choice, privacy, independence, dignity, respect and partnership. It goes on to look at the right service users have to take risks in their lives and how the care plan and risk assessment can assist to protect individuals from harm

Carers are often too wrapped up in their duties to think about their needs. This article reports on a pilot project in Kensington and Chelsea, run by charity wpf Counselling and Psychotherapy and funded by the council. The project aimed to offer carers of older people and people with mental health problems counselling to help them gain independence. The article also contains a brief case study.

The film introduces Jill Hunter who was recently discharged from hospital with limited mobility, following major surgery. Jill lives alone and was determined to return to her independent lifestyle. To enable this, Central Bedfordshire adult social care services commissioned their reablement team to work with Jill. We hear from two community reablement workers about the incredible transition people like Jill can make from initially requiring intensive support to being completely independent.

Research and theory on ‘dependency’ and ‘care-giving’ have to date proceeded along largely separate lines, with little sense that they are exploring and explaining different aspects of the same phenomenon. Research on ‘care’, initially linked to feminism during the early 1980s, has revealed and exposed to public gaze what was hitherto assumed to be a ‘natural’ female activity. Conversely, disability activists and writers who have promoted a social model of disability have seen the language of and the policy focus upon ‘care’ as oppressive and objectifying.

This article presents a case study contrasting the disease orientation and strengths perspective, and describing how strengths perspectives can be used to utilize the assets and strengths that each person with dementia retains in order to improve both the quality of care and the quality of life for the person with demetia and his or her family carers.

Designed exclusively for those providing care within the care home setting, this two part title introduces carers to the values that underpin person-centred care. It assists them to develop their understanding of how principles of care should be reflected in their day-to-day practices by exploring the values of individuality, rights, choice, privacy, independence, dignity, respect and partnership. It goes on to look at the right service users have to take risks in their lives and how the care plan and risk assessment can assist to protect individuals from harm.

Home-care re-ablement is a short-term, intensive service that helps people to (re-) establish their capacity and confidence in performing basic personal care and domestic tasks at home, thereby reducing needs for longer term help. Home-care re-ablement is an increasingly common feature of English adult social care services; there are similar service developments in Australia and New Zealand. This paper presents evidence from semi-structured interviews conducted in early 2010 with 34 service users and 10 carers from five established re-ablement services in England.