Caring for older persons with dementia : the principles of person-centred care

Abstract

Dementia is not a single disease or condition but a syndrome of multiple causes. It is usually used as an ‘umbrella’ term (Moore, 2009) for more than 200 different conditions and disorders characterised by a progressive deterioration in cognitive function, some of which are considerably rare. Knopman et al. (2003) proposed different diagnostic criteria for differentiating between the most common types of dementia, namely Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Vascular Dementia, Dementia with Lewy Body and Fronto-temporal dementia. Such cognitive decline includes loss of memory and impairment in executive functions such as planning and organisational skills, accompanied by personality changes and deterioration in cognitive function sufficient to limit social activities.