Supporting strengths and responding to agitation in dementia care: An exploratory study

Abstract

A variety of factors in fluence the choice of caregiving approach as family and professional caregivers respond to agitated behaviors and support the strengths of persons with dementia. Findings reported in this article are part of a larger qualitative study designed to describe and classify interventions in dementia care and to explore factors influencing caregiving approaches.I Descriptive findings led to the development of a taxonomy consisting of seven domains of caregiving approaches: social, psychological, functional, behavioral, environmental, medical, and cognitive.² In this article, exploratory findings on the relationship between care giving approaches and both the caregivers'perceptions of the client's personal strengths and the caregivers' ratings of the client's agitated behavior are interpreted; also working hypotheses are discussed as they apply to each domain of caregiving approaches. Findings also are examined in relation to the theory of personenvironment fit, and implications for a social model of dementia care are discussed.