Person-Centred Care for Persons Living with Dementia

Person-centred care represents a shift from viewing dementia primarily through a biomedical model toward a broader biopsychosocial approach that considers the individual’s biological, psychological, and social circumstances. Rather than focusing only on diagnosis, impairment, and medical intervention, this model places the person, their values, preferences, life history, relationships, and remaining abilities at the centre of care.

This webinar examines how person-centred care can be implemented for people living with dementia. A central principle is that care should be developed with the person rather than simply delivered to them. People living with dementia should be listened to, treated with respectful language, given opportunities to express preferences, participate in decisions, maintain social connections, and remain involved in their own care.

Knowing the individual beyond the diagnosis is presented as fundamental to effective dementia care. Personal and family history, occupation, social roles, lifestyle, hobbies, achievements, preferences, dislikes, and significant life experiences can help professionals and caregivers tailor support to the individual. Maintaining continuity with meaningful aspects of a person’s previous life may contribute to preservation of identity and well-being.

The webinar emphasizes the concept of personhood and the importance of focusing on remaining abilities rather than exclusively on losses. Even as cognitive and functional abilities change, emotional responses, preferences, relationships, and capacities for meaningful engagement may remain. Care should therefore support independence and self-determination for as long as possible rather than unnecessarily replacing activities the person can still perform.

Choice, dignity, self-determination, and meaningful living are presented as core values of person-centred care. Practical examples include allowing individuals to choose when they wake, eat, sleep, what they wear, and which activities they participate in; using their preferred name; protecting privacy; avoiding infantilizing language; supporting independent eating where possible; and providing personally meaningful activities.

The session also contrasts traditional institutional care with a person-centred model. Instead of organizing daily life around institutional schedules and routines, person-centred care adapts services and staff practices to individual preferences. Continuity of caregivers is emphasized as a means of developing familiarity, trust, and relationships. Decisions should involve the person living with dementia, family members, caregivers, and staff rather than being made exclusively by management.

Language is another important component of respectful dementia care. The webinar encourages terminology that emphasizes personhood, such as “person living with dementia,” rather than labels that define an individual by the condition. Similar attention is given to avoiding language that may be infantilizing, stigmatizing, or degrading.

Family members and informal caregivers form an important part of the care process. Dementia affects not only the individual but also the wider family, and person-centred dementia care therefore requires communication, collaboration, and support involving the person, relatives, and professional caregivers.

The lecture reports that person-centred approaches have been associated with reductions in agitated, aggressive, and other challenging behaviours, as well as lower use of hospital treatment and antipsychotic medication and greater satisfaction among people living with dementia and their caregivers. Challenging behaviours are discussed as possible expressions of unmet needs, reinforcing the importance of understanding the individual rather than responding only to the behaviour itself.

Overall, the webinar presents person-centred dementia care as a cultural and practical shift toward individualized, coordinated, enabling care. Preserving identity, dignity, choice, relationships, meaningful engagement, and participation in decisions remains central throughout the course of dementia.

Questions and answers

How does person-centred dementia care differ from traditional institutional care?

Person-centred care organizes support around the individual’s preferences, history, abilities, and choices rather than primarily around institutional routines. It also emphasizes shared decision-making, caregiver continuity, dignity, and meaningful participation.

Why is knowing the person’s life history important in dementia care?

Personal history, relationships, occupation, lifestyle, hobbies, achievements, preferences, and dislikes provide information that can be used to individualize care. The webinar emphasizes that maintaining continuity with meaningful aspects of a person’s life can help preserve identity and engagement.

Learn more about this topic in our series of webinars and expert lectures from the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG): link

*Provided by International Association of Gerontology & Geriatrics (IAGG) & Federation of Geriatric Education (FGE)

Speakers

• Prof. Rosette Farrugia-Bonello

Learning objectives

• Explain the difference between biomedical and biopsychosocial approaches to dementia care.
• Describe the principles and core values of person-centred care for people living with dementia.
• Recognize the importance of personal history, preferences, remaining abilities, and meaningful activities when individualizing care.
• Identify practical strategies for supporting choice, dignity, self-determination, identity, and participation in dementia care.
• Discuss the roles of family involvement, caregiver continuity, respectful communication, and attention to unmet needs in person-centred dementia care.