Life story resources in dementia care: a review
Abstract
Purpose
Life story work has a relatively long tradition in the caring sciences and is recognised as an important component of dementia care and practice. However, to date, there has not been a review of accessible life story resources. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Following a systematic approach to identification and inclusion, 11 life story resources were reviewed to ascertain areas of commonality and divergence between the materials.
Findings
The authors were able to group the analysis under eight areas and at the end of this process, it was uncertain if life story work is a formal staff intervention or an informal activity that people with dementia and their families could engage in. Resources also varied in terms of whether the life story information was organised in a chronological way, or with topics of interest/discussion or with a combination of both. Life story evaluation and its impact on the life of the person with dementia is in need of development.
Practical implications
Across the resources the authors identified four reasons to do life story work which the authors have named as: emotional connections; interactional connections; building new connections and practical care connections.
Social implications
There was limited guidance aimed at helping people with dementia to develop and compile their own life story.
Originality/value
This paper provides new insights into the usefulness, future directions and content of life story resources in dementia care. It will be of interest to those in health and social care as well as people living with dementia.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
©Jacqueline Kindell, Simon Burrow, Ray Wilkinson, John David Keady. Published by Emerald Group Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 3.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial & non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/3.0/legalcode
This work was supported by The Dunhill Medical Trust [grant number: RTF33/111]
Citation
Kindell, J., Burrow, S., Wilkinson, R. and David Keady, J. (2014), "Life story resources in dementia care: a review", Quality in Ageing and Older Adults, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 151-161. https://doi.org/10.1108/QAOA-02-2014-0003
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Authors