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Education about dementia in primary care: Is person-centredness the key?

Edwards, Rachel; Voss, Sarah; Iliffe, Steve

Authors

Rachel Edwards

Sarah Voss Sarah.Voss@uwe.ac.uk
Professor of Emergency and Critical Care

Steve Iliffe



Abstract

Primary care is ideally placed to recognise and manage dementia and yet dementia can be overlooked or misattributed by primary care practitioners and is underdiagnosed. This might be explained by a lack of formal training in the diagnosis of dementia combined with a reluctance to diagnose due to its associated stigma. This paper describes focus group work with service users, carers and health professionals, conducted to develop an educational intervention for primary care promoting person-centred responses to people experiencing cognitive decline and dementia. Data was analysed thematically and four themes emerged: Reframing dementia as cognitive decline (Individual level); triggers for the recognition of dementia (Practitioner level); engaging the whole primary care team (Practice level); the relationship between primary and secondary care (Service level). Findings are discussed in the context of their contribution to challenging attitudes to dementia in primary care and the positive aspects of person-centred primary care for dementia. © The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jan 1, 2014
Deposit Date Sep 18, 2013
Journal Dementia
Print ISSN 1471-3012
Electronic ISSN 1741-2684
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 13
Issue 1
Pages 111-119
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/1471301212451381
Keywords dementia, person-centred, primary care, training
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/822382
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1471301212451381
Additional Information Additional Information : Published online 4 July 2012.
Contract Date Nov 15, 2016