| CODE | GDM2026 | ||||||||
| TITLE | Key Principles of Dementia Care | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Gerontology and Dementia Studies | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit presents the global, regional, and national statistical background contexts concerning dementia diagnosis, and discusses the various forms of dementia and the symptoms and other common challenging behaviours experienced by persons living with dementia. National and international policies, especially the ‘National Dementia Strategy: Malta 2015-2023’, are presented and debated. The study-unit will also focus on the skills required to provide effective person-centred care - through communication, planned environment and implementation of meaningful activities - for persons living with dementia. The range of community and institutional care services for older persons with dementia will also be presented and discussed. Study-unit Aims: The objective of this study-unit is to provide students with an overview of the main issues related to dementia care management. The unit aims to help students to better understand how to work with and care for effectively with persons living with dementia, the importance of embedding dementia in a person-centred and relational approach that is attentive to the needs of persons with dementia, family relatives, informal caregivers, and partners/spouses. The extent that dementia is a normal part of the ageing life course, a disability, and/or an illness is also extensively debated. Another aim is to compare and contrast community and institutional appoaches to dementia care. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - define the onset of dementia, how a diagnosis is determined and the cognitive, functional, behavioural and emotional changes that occur in persons living with dementia; - describe the importance of person-centred care and the various ways on how to implement it with persons living with dementia; - report upon home surroundings so as to help persons living with dementia to understand the environment and also to limit possible hazards encountered; - identify the measures within the National Dementia Plan to be implemented in the various areas of dementia management and care; - review the different care services for older persons living in the community and others residing in long-term care facilities. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - explain the most common different types of dementia and know the symptoms; - employ person-centre care when working with persons living; - communicate effectively with persons living with dementia by making use of different communication strategies and how to respond to various forms of challenging behaviour; - demonstrate how to create a planned environment and employ meaningful activities for persons living with dementia; - appraise the extent that care services for older persons living in the community or residing in long-term care facilities contribute to social and emotional wellbeing. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Text: - Jackson, Graham and Tolson, Debbie (eds). (2019). Textbook of Dementia Care: An Integrated Approach. Routledge, UK. - Parliamentary Secretariat for Rights of Persons with Disability and Active Ageing. (2015). National Dementia Strategy: Malta 2015-2023. Malta: Parliamentary Secretariat for Rights of Persons with Disability and Active Ageing. Supplementary texts: - Abela, Stephen, Mamo, Julian, Aquilina, Carmelo, & Scerri, Charles, 2007 - Estimated prevalence of dementia in the Maltese Islands, Malta Medical Journal, 19, 2, 23-26. - Bitenc, Rebecca, (2020). Reconsidering dementia narratives. London: Routledge. - Formosa, Marvin (ed.), Active and healthy ageing in Malta: Gerontological and geriatric inquiries in Malta. Malta: Book Distributors Limited. - Innes, Anthea, Abela, Stephen, and Scerri, Charles, 2011 - The organisation of dementia care by families in Malta: The experiences of family caregivers, Dementia, 10, 2, 165-184. - MacDonald, Gaynor, 2019 – Why person-centred’ is not enough: A relational approach to dementia. In G. Macdonald and J. Mears (eds.), Dementia as a social experience: Valuing life and care. London: Routledge, pp. 195-214. - Mears, Jane, 2019 - ‘Nobody cares about me’: Older women, caring and dementia. In G. Macdonald and J. Mears (eds.), Dementia as a social experience: Valuing life and care. London: Routledge, pp. 34-45. - Roberto, Karen, McCann, Brandy Renee, Blieszner, Rosemary, and Savla, Jyoti, 2019 - A long and winding road: Dementia caregiving with grit and grace. Innovation in Aging, 3, 3, 1-12. - Scerri, Charles, 2015 - The travails of dementia policy development in a small island state: Perspectives from Malta, Hellenic Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 18, 1, 2-12. - Spiteri, Charmaine, and Scerri, Charles, 2019 - Utilisation of services by informal caregivers of community-dwelling persons living with dementia making use of the dementia activity centres in the Maltese Islands, Malta Journal of Health Sciences, 6, 1, 5 -13. |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | This study-unit is only offered to students following the Higher Diploma in Gerontology and Geriatrics course. | ||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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