At the heart of person-centered memory care is dignity—and oftentimes, “that begins with language and how we speak about individuals and their condition,” Chaplain Brandon Cox shared in a recent virtual session of the Ingleside webinar series, Navigating Dementia, “Still Here: Dignity and Personhood in Dementia”.
For individuals living with a form of dementia, shifts in memory, movement, and communication can feel like a constellation of losses, both to them and to their care partners. The call to honor dignity and personhood recognizes that one’s identity, emotions, and need for connection remain essential, even as memory and word-finding might fail.
Chaplain Brandon, one of Ingleside at Rock Creek and Westminster at Lake Ridge’s Chaplains, and a family member to a loved one experiencing cognitive change, shared key takeaways in this virtual session for care partners on compassionate ways to support those living with cognitive decline.
How to Maintain Dignity in Memory Care
According to the Alzheimer’s Association’s Inclusive Language Guide, using respectful, person-first language can shape how individuals perceive themselves and are treated. Rather than saying someone “suffers from dementia,” Brandon stated, “it’s more affirming to say they live with dementia.” This subtle shift reinforces that the diagnosis does not define the individual and reframes the narrative from dependence to having autonomy.
As an example, Chaplain Brandon explained that a key practice in maintaining dignity in memory care is to ask individuals how they want to be addressed. In most cases, they will clearly communicate their preferences. Taking the time to not only ask, but also to honor that answer, is a simple but powerful way to affirm dignity and respect.
4 Key Ways to Maintain the Dignity of Loved Ones
One of the most common challenges in caregiving for a loved one is balancing necessary and even critical responsibilities with meaningful and intentional human interaction. Family care partners to individuals living with cognitive change may feel like they are caught up in always completing tasks. Although the management of the needs of an individual living with dementia can feel all-consuming, taking a pause to verbally involve them is a way to honor their personhood. One intentional way to do this is to narrate the task at hand for the individual living with cognitive change as opposed to rushing to complete the task on their behalf, often without even intentionally acknowledging their involvement.
A few key ways to incorporate this:
- Ensure they are involved in decisions whenever possible
- Explain actions instead of directing them
- Preserve independence where it can be maintained
- Use respectful, person-first language
Honoring Personal Preferences for those Living with Dementia
Every person living with dementia has a lifetime of set routines, preferences, and experiences that continue to shape who they are.
Whether it’s enjoying a favorite genre of music, eating a preferred meal, or maintaining familiar daily routines, these details create comfort and stability. Honoring personal preferences is a key part of person-centered dementia care and can help individuals feel respected and recognized beyond their diagnosis.
When individuals living with cognitive change can no longer express their own wishes for favorite cuisines, leisure activities, and daily routines, it is important to glean from relationships that provide context and historical data that may best support the individual’s unique preferences. In a community setting, team members should communicate with the care partners of individuals living with a form of dementia to ask thorough questions that will support the entire interdisciplinary team in honoring the personal preferences of the individual living with dementia.
Creating a Sense of Safety, Value, and Connection
A person living with cognitive change may not always be able to communicate their desire for safety, value, and connection. Chaplain Brandon highlighted the importance of meeting individuals where they are in their word-finding and communication abilities and connecting with them in forms not limited to language.
Connection can take many forms, including:
- Gentle tone and reassuring narration of the day or present activity
- Eye contact and reassuring physical nearness, such as handholding
- Shared quiet moments or familiar activities that do not require language, such as cooking together, tending to a garden together, or playing music together
Dementia Care That Honors the Whole Person
When managing the care of a loved one living with cognitive loss, it can feel incredibly challenging to make space for connection when there is so much practically that needs to be scheduled, managed, or checked off the never-ending care partner “to-do” list.
One way to practice meaningful connection is to start each interaction with intentionality, taking a pause to recognize the personhood of the individual living with dementia, and affirm their dignity through addressing them according to their preferences, making eye contact and verbally expressing what task or agenda item you wish to support them with, and being willing to pivot should they express verbally or through body language that they wish to do something different in that moment.
Person-centered care ensures that each individual continues to be respected, heard, and truly seen. As Chaplain Brandon shared, “caring for folks that live with dementia is not a perfect science, it’s a journey. It’s how well we move together on this journey, and how we bear witness to the person’s life story”.
Ingleside is committed to supporting older adults and their families through compassionate, person-centered memory care programs designed to enhance quality of life.
To learn more about dementia support and memory care at Ingleside, visit us online: https://inglesideonline.org/memory-care/